On 17 October 2022, the Honorable Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, delivered the thirty-ninth Charles L. Decker Lecture in Administrative and Civil Law at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS). Students of the 71st Graduate Course and 218th Officer Basic Course were in attendance, along with TJAGLCS and University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law faculty, staff, and students.

In his book, The Killer Angels,¹ author Michael Shaara describesthe critical decision of Union General John Buford, Jr., to take and hold the high ground on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Upon surveying the terrain around the small town of Gettysburg as he entered with the lead elements of his troops, General Buford immediately recognized the high ground’s location and tactical importance. His small cavalry force faced a numerically superior Confederate army.

News & Notes 2022 Issue 3 

Rim of the Pacific 2022 (RIMPAC22), the world’s largest international maritime exercise, concluded on 4 August 2022. It included over a month of realistic combined operations training in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.²

In celebration of its fiftieth anniversary, the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) hosted attorneys, judges, Fortune 100 business leaders, public officials, and law students at its annual convention on 17-19 September 2022.¹ Throughout the three-day event, which took place at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., national policy makers and leading practitioners met for fruitful discussions.

Envision this scenario: it is Monday morning. You are a judge advocate (JA) sitting at your desk. You just closed your last open action² in the Administrative Law Case Tracking System (ALCS),³ and it appears this could finally be a relatively slow day, during which you might find time to write an article for The Army Lawyer. You consider visiting Starbucks, a trip that requires a lap around the “ring”⁴ located one floor beneath the Office of The Advocate General (OTJAG), and one corridor past the Personnel, Plans, and Training Office. An email arrives in your inbox.

Military service is a privilege that sometimes requires sacrifice. While I have found this oft-repeated adage to be true (particularly during permanent change of station season), fortunately, this phrase also includes “sometimes.” When I transitioned to the civilian sector after eight years on active duty, I chose to continue serving in the Reserves. I did so because I deeply value both my military service and the opportunity to continue serving alongside the amazing people in our Corps.

Regardless of your rank, assignment, or practice area,advising commanders and leaders is at the core of what judge advocates (JAs) do.¹ The Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps’s primary mission is to provide “independent legal advice to commanders” at all echelons of the Army.² All JAG Corps senior leaders expect JAs to be competent leaders of character, ready to provide principled counsel across the legal disciplines and throughout the conflict continuum.³

History . . . is a larger way of looking at life . . . . It is about who we are and what we stand for and is essential to our understanding of what our own role should be in our time . . . . Our history, our American story, is our definition as a people and a nation.²

Many nations have sent their military attorneys to The Judge Advocate General’s School and The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS) over the years. Military lawyers from more than twenty-five countries have studied alongside their American colleagues. To name a few: Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Ukraine.