For Immediate Release
April 7, 2008

Media Contact:

Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

Professor Neal Katyal

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Georgetown University Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff is pleased to announce the appointment of Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal as the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law. He will be formally installed in a ceremony at the Law Center on April 10, in conjunction with the inauguration of the Center on National Security and the Law.

"Neal Katyal is one of the nation’s foremost national security law experts. This honor is a fitting recognition of his achievements as a scholar, teacher and Supreme Court advocate," said Aleinikoff. "Likewise, Paul Saunders has demonstrated extraordinary leadership through his volunteer efforts, teaching and philanthropy. We are deeply grateful to Paul, and his wife, Pat, for their generosity in endowing this professorship."

Katyal served as lead attorney in the landmark Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a challenge to the military tribunals set up by President Bush to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a 5-3 decision, the Court ruled that the military commissions violated military and international law.

Katyal received numerous honors from the legal community for his work in the Hamdan case. In 2006, the National Law Journal named Katyal a "Lawyer of the Year Runner-Up," Lawyers USA newspaper selected him as a "Lawyer of the Year" and LawDragon magazine chose him as one of its "500 Leading Lawyers in America." He has also received the Town of Salem (Massachusetts) Award, the ACLU’s Roger Baldwin Award, Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defender Award and other awards from bar associations throughout the country.

In 2000, Katyal served as co-counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election dispute. He also represented uniformed military Judge Advocate General’s Corps officers in the 2004 Supreme Court case Rasul v. Bush, Justice Joseph Grodin in the Supreme Court case on the Pledge of Allegiance and a group of private law school deans in the high court’s landmark affirmative action case Grutter v. Bollinger.

An expert in national security law, the U.S. Constitution, criminal law and the Geneva Conventions, Katyal is the director of the Center on National Security and the Law at Georgetown Law.

Before coming to Georgetown in 1997, he was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer and Judge Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1998-99, Katyal served as National Security Adviser to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice. He was commissioned by President Clinton in 1999 to co-author a report on the ways the legal profession can enhance its pro bono activities and diversify the bar. In 2004, the National Law Journal awarded him their annual pro bono award in recognition of his work.

The Paul and Patricia Saunders Professorship in National Security Law was established with a gift by Paul Saunders, a member of the Georgetown Law class of 1966, and his wife, Pat, a former member of the Georgetown University board of regents. They are the parents of two Georgetown University graduates – Dr. Paul Saunders, class of 1992, and Michael Saunders, class of 1994.

Paul Saunders is a partner in the litigation department at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York and a distinguished visiting professor from practice at the Law Center. He is a member and former chair of the Georgetown Law board of visitors and served as chair of the Law Affairs Committee of the Georgetown University board of regents from 1991-1997. A member of Georgetown’s 1789 Society, which recognizes significant philanthropic support of the University, he was presented the University’s John Carroll Alumni Award in 1995 and the Law Center’s Paul R. Dean Alumni Award in 2006.

 

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.

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