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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU’s Shepard Broad Law Center to Welcome Will A. Gunn as Commencement Speaker, May 10
Fort Lauderdale native and General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Will A. Gunn, J.D., will address approximately 260 candidates of Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center at its Commencement on Saturday, May 10.
Gunn was sworn in as the General Counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs on May 26, 2009. Colonel Gunn, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) served in various positions within the Air Force including executive officer to the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Air Force JAG Corps and as Chief Circuit Defense Counsel, U.S. Air Force, retiring from the military in 2005.
Prior to his retirement, Gunn was named the first-ever Chief Circuit Defense Counsel in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions. He built a defense team and supervised all defense activities for detainees selected for trial before military commissions—the first proceedings of their kind to be conducted by the United States in over 60 years. Gunn won acclaim for his principled leadership and commitment to ensuring that detainees received effective representation. In doing so, he set the tone so that the military lawyers under his leadership were able to vigorously defend their clients. These efforts radically changed public perceptions about military lawyers and raised international attention on the Guantanamo prison camp.
A native of Fort Lauderdale, Gunn graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with military honors in 1980. He is a 1986 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and while at Harvard, he was elected president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, the nation’s oldest student run legal services organization. In 1990, he was selected as a White House Fellow and served in the Executive Office of the President in the Office of Cabinet Affairs. He also has a Masters of Laws degree in Environmental Law from the George Washington University School of Law and a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is a licensed minister and he and his wife, Dawn, live in Northern Virginia.
More information on NSU’s Commencement exercises can be found online at NSU Commencement 2014