Georgetown Law

Phillip Carter is senior director, corporate counsel, at Salesforce, where his work focuses on the company’s public sector business.

Professor Carter has a diverse background in law, policy, and public service. He began his career as an Army officer, serving for more than 9 years, including a combat deployment (2005-06) in Iraq as an embedded adviser with the Iraqi police. He later practiced acquisition and procurement law in the private sector, managed a start-up government contractor supporting DoD and other agencies, and served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy. Prior to joining Salesforce, Professor Carter led a research program at the RAND Corporation focused on personnel issues for the Department of Homeland Security, and before that, led a research program at the Center for a New American Security focused on veterans and military personnel issues. Professor Carter has also served on a number of advisory and governance boards across the veterans and community, and written extensively on national security and veterans issues. In 2020-21, he served as part of the Biden-Harris transition team, as senior adviser on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) agency review team.

Professor Carter currently teaches a course on corporate national security law, and a practicum on military personnel and veterans policy. He earned a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, and a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.