Michael Bahar

Michael Bahar is currently the minority staff director and general counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Bahar has been with the Committee since 2012.  Between March 2010 and February 2012, he served in the White House as deputy legal adviser to the National Security Council Staff.  He is currently in the U.S. Navy Reserves as a JAG supporting U.S. Special Operations Command, and while on active duty, Bahar deployed twice, once to Afghanistan as deputy staff judge advocate to a Special Operations Task Force, and a second time to the Arabian Gulf and Horn of Africa as the staff judge advocate to a naval strike group. While on active duty, Bahar also served as the aide to the deputy judge advocate general of the Navy, as deputy staff judge advocate to the vice chief of Naval Operations, as assistant staff judge advocate to Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and as a prosecutor. Prior to going on active duty, Bahar was a litigation associate in the New York offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. 

Bahar has a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University, an M.Phil in International Relations from Cambridge University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an LL.M. in International/National Security Law from Columbia University. Bahar has also been an adjunct professor at New York University and at the University of North Florida, as well as the artistic director of a nonprofit theatrical production company.    

Stewart Baker

Stewart Baker is currently a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where his practice concentrates on issues related to privacy, national security, computer security, electronic surveillance, encryption, digital commerce, and export controls. Baker had previously worked in private practice at Steptoe & Johnson from 1981 to 1992, and again from 1994 to 2005. Prior to returning to his current position at the law firm, Baker served at the Department of Homeland Security as the first assistant secretary for policy, where he was responsible for policy analysis across the department, and where he managed the passage and implementation of the SAFE Ports Act and led policy efforts to reform federal immigration laws. Baker has also served as deputy general counsel, ppecial assistant to the secretary of the Department of Education, as well as general counsel to the National Security Agency. As a Supreme Court advocate, Baker founded the State and Local Legal Center, and his writings on appellate and constitutional issues have been cited in various opinions of the Supreme Court.

Baker has a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as chief articles editor for the UCLA Law Review and graduated first in his class. Baker has served as law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler (1975), First Circuit Judge Frank M. Coffin (1976-1977), and Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (1977-1978).

Charles Blanchard

Charles Blanchard is currently a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP, where he draws upon his experience in government and private practice to work with clients in the contracting and national security communities. Blanchard previously served as the general counsel and chief ethics officer for the U.S. Air Force (2009-2013), where he provided oversight and guidance for legal advice provided by more than 2,600 Air Force military and civilian lawyers worldwide. Blanchard also served as general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Army (1999-2001). Blanchard’s other government experience includes serving as chief counsel to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (1997-1999) and as a two-term member of the Arizona State Senate. In 2003, he served as interim homeland security director for former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. Blanchard was also formerly a partner in private practice where he focused on complex commercial litigation, antitrust, state constitutional law, and election law.

Upon graduating from Harvard Law School, where he graduated first in his class and served as an articles editor for the Harvard Law Review, Blanchard served as law clerk for D.C. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards (1985-1986) as well as Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1986-1987). Blanchard also holds a master of public policy degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Col. Gary Brown

Retired Air Force Col. Gary Brown is currently a professor of cyber security at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. Brown previously served as head of communications and congressional affairs for the Washington Delegation, International Committee of the Red Cross. Brown served 24 years as a judge advocate with the Air Force. His Air Force career included two deployments to the Middle East, one of which was a year at the Combined Air Operations Center, Southwest Asia, as the senior lawyer advising on combat air operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his final military assignment, he was the first senior legal counsel for U.S. Cyber Command, Fort Meade, Maryland, where he served for three years.

Brown frequently speaks on cyber operations law and policy, and has authored several articles related to cyber warfare, including “Easier Said Than Done: Legal Reviews of Cyber Weapons,” “Why Iran Didn’t Admit Stuxnet Was an Attack,” and “On the Specturm of Cyberspace Operations.” Brown was the official U.S. observer to the drafting of the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare, and is a member of the International Group of Experts drafting the second edition of the Tallinn Manual. Brown has a law degree from the University of Nebraska and an LL.M. in International Law from Cambridge University.

Eric Jensen

Eric Jensen is currently a professor of law at Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he teaches and writes in the areas of public international law, criminal law, and national security law. Jensen was one of the group of attorneys who prepared the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare, and is currently working on the follow-on to the Tallinn Manual, dealing with cyber operations more generally. Jensen is co-author of The Law of Armed Conflict: An Operational Perspective, The Laws of War and the War on Terror and National Security Law and Policy: a Student Treatise. Jensen is additionally the author of more than 30 law journal publications focusing on international law, national security law, cyber law, and international criminal law.

Prior to joining the BYU law faculty in 2011, Jensen spent two years teaching at Fordham Law School in New York City and 20 years in the U.S. Army as both a cavalry officer and as a judge advocate. During his time as a judge advocate, Jensen served in various positions including as the chief of the Army’s International Law Branch; deputy legal adviser for Task Force Baghdad; professor of international and operational law at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School; legal adviser to the U.S. contingent of UN Forces deployed to Skopje, Macedonia, as part of UNPREDEP; and legal adviser in Bosnia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor/Guard.

Jensen has a B.A. in International Relations from BYU, a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School, and LL.M.s from both The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School and Yale Law School.