Army Strong
JAG officer puts his deployments to use in the classroom
By Amy Blakely
In his dual roles as a lawyer and U.S. Army officer, Major Winston Williams (LAW ’04) spent a year in Iraq helping that country re-establish its justice system.
Williams is a Judge Advocate and an associate professor in the international/operational law department at the U.S. Army JAG Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. He finished his LL.M degree in military law there in May.
As a member of the ROTC, Williams earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Florida A & M University. After college, Williams served three years as a combat engineer—a year in Korea as a platoon leader for the 2nd Infantry Division and two years as the executive officer of an engineering company at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
In 2001, he enrolled in UT’s College of Law through the Army Funded Legal Education Program, which pays for select commissioned officers to attend law school and become members of the JAG Corps.
After earning his law degree, Williams spent two years as Chief of Administrative Law for the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 2006, he became trial counsel for the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, and he was deployed to Tikrit, Iraq.
“After Sadam Hussein was removed from power, we partnered with the new government at the local and national levels to re-establish their judicial infrastructure,” he says.
Williams says the work was complicated, but rewarding—albeit potentially dangerous.
“It changed my perception of the way we fight wars,” he says. “You think, they’re the bad guys and we’re the good guys, but the type of warfare we’re involved in now is much, much harder, because no one is wearing a uniform. You don’t know someone is bad until they’re shooting at you or trying to blow you up.”
After returning from Iraq, Williams served as senior operational law trainer at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana. Then, in 2010, he started working on his advanced degree at the JAG Legal Center and School. After finishing earlier this year, he stayed on to teach.
The JAG Legal Center and School educates military, civilian, and international personnel in law and leadership. The international and operational law department teaches subjects like law of war, the Geneva Conventions, international human rights law, means and methods of warfare, war crimes, detention and interrogation operations, international agreements, and national security law.
“Major Williams has used his legal degree to make our country stronger and safer by serving as a lawyer in the U.S. Army JAG and focusing on national security and international law,” says UT College of Law’s Dean Doug Blaze. “He was a leader and significant contributor to the law school community while he was here and continues to support our work as a member of the Dean’s Circle.”
Name: Winston Williams
Age: 36
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Employment: U.S. Army
Focus: Judge Advocate and Professor
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Read this story and more online at issuu.com or download the fall 2011 issue of Tennessee Law (pdf).