Neal Katyal

Faculty Director 2007 - 2009

Before his appointment as Deputy Solicitor General on January 21, 2009, Katyal was a professor at Georgetown Law and the Director of the Center on National Security and the Law.  In 2006, he prevailed in the US Supreme Court case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, challenging the policy of military trials at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba. An expert in matters of constitutional law, particularly the role of the President and Congress in time of war and theories of constitutional interpretation, Katyal has embraced his theoretical work as the platform for practical consequences in the federal courts.

Matthew Gerke

Fellow 2007 - 2009

Matthew Gerke worked for three and a half years in the Pentagon and in Iraq, dealing with rule of law issues in the reconstruction of Iraq. Before that he was in private practice litigation with Arent Fox. He holds a BA from Princeton University, a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, and a Masters in international Public Policy from the University of Michigan.

Justin Florence

Fellow 2007 - 2009

Justin Florence is an Associate at the Washington office of O'Melveny & Myers, LLP and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center, where he served as a Fellow during the 2007-2008 academic year. Previously, Justin was a law clerk to the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He has experience working for the Department of Homeland Security, and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI). He graduated from Yale law School, where he was Executive Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He also holds a Master's degree in American history from Harvard University, and a BA from Yale College.

Babak Siavoshy

Visiting Researcher Fall 2009

Babak Siavoshy was a visiting researcher at the Center for the Fall of 2009.  Babak served as a law clerk to the Honorable John T. Noonan, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco from 2008 - 2009.  He graduated from Berkeley Law, where he was Associate Editor of the Berkeley Journal of International Law and worked on the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He also holds a BA in Philosophy and English Literature from U.C. Berkeley, where he served as a Graduate Student Instructor, teaching courses in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Cognitive Science.

Larry Schwartztol

Visiting Researcher Spring 2010

Larry Schwartztol was a visiting researcher at the Center for the Spring of 2010.  Previously, Larry was a staff attorney in the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, where he litigated cases involving foreign intelligence surveillance, ideological exclusion of foreign scholars, and the government's search authority at airports and the U.S. border. Before that, Larry litigated school equity cases as a Karpatkin Fellow in the ACLU's Racial Justice Program and worked on voting rights issues as a Liman Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.  He served as a law clerk to Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  Larry graduated from Yale Law School and received his BA from the University of Chicago.

Amanda Shanor

Fellow Fall 2010

While at Georgetown, Amanda has worked with Professor David Cole on the litigation of several cases involving national security issues, including Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, a First and Fifth Amendment challenge to the statute barring material support for terrorism heard by the Supreme Court, and Arar v. Ashcroft, a Bivens claim concerning rendition and torture.  Previously, she served for several years as the U.S. Program Officer for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights.  Amanda's academic work focuses on
constitutional law, political theory, speech and association, and their intersection with the behavioral sciences, and she is co-authoring a casebook on law and terrorism.  Amanda is a graduate of Yale Law School and Yale College.

Laura Donohue

Acting Faculty Director 2011

Laura Donohue is an Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law.  She writes on the history of national security and counterterrorist law in the United States and United Kingdom. Her most recent book, The Cost of Counterterrorism:  Power, Politics, and Liberty (Cambridge University Press, April 2008) analyzes the impact of American and British counterterrorist law on life, liberty, property, privacy, and free speech.  In 2008–09 she clerked for Judge John T. Noonan, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Professor Donohue obtained her AB in Philosophy (with Honors) from Dartmouth College, her MA in Peace Studies (with Distinction) from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, her JD (with Distinction) from Stanford Law School, and her PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, England.

Luis Miguel Dickson

Visiting Researcher 2011

Miguel Dickson graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center where he was Senior Notes Editor for the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. He also holds a BA in Philosophy and English Literature from Swarthmore College.