Former military lawyer Will Gunn will present a lecture, An Officer, a Gentleman, and American Values While Addressing Terrorism, at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5 in UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall.
His lecture is the second in UNC Asheville Moral Challenges Speaker Series, and is free and open to the public.
A retired Air Force colonel and former general counsel for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Gunn served as the first-ever chief defense counsel for the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, allowing detainees at the Guantanamo prison camp to receive effective representation. Under Gunn’s leadership, military lawyers were able to vigorously defend their clients and brought the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld lawsuit, triggering the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court invalidating the military commission system set up to prosecute the detainees.
60 Minutes featured Gunn in their 2005 story, “Justice at Guantanamo.” He has also been featured in The New Yorker, Harvard Law Bulletin, Diversity & the Bar magazine,and The Tavis Smiley Show.
Gunn has held leadership positions in a host of other legal and community organizations and has received numerous awards and honors, including the Frederick Douglas Human Rights Award from the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau’s Outstanding Alumni Award, and the American Bar Association’s Outstanding Career Military Lawyer Award. In 2002, he was elected to the National Bar Association’s Military Law Section Hall of Fame.
The Moral Challenges Speaker Series is sponsored by UNC Asheville’s Office of the Provost, and the deans of university programs and of natural sciences. The third and final lecture in the series will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16 in UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall. For more information, contact Philip Gary at [email protected].