Colonel Will A. Gunn delivered the 2007 Luvera Lecture in the law school’s Barbieri Courtroom on October 4th. Colonel Gunn titled his address “Defending the Guantanamo Detainees: Courage, Public Service, and the Rule of Law.”
Colonel Gunn, who holds a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a law degree from Harvard Law School, is the chief executive officer of the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Washington, D.C. area. Prior to working with the Boys and Girls Club, Colonel Gunn had a distinguished 25-year career in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General Corp.
Colonel Gunn’s last assignment in the Air Force JAG was as Chief Defense Counsel for the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, where he directed the defense effort for the detainees brought before military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. While in this post, Col. Gunn built an office from the ground up and led a team of 14 military and 20 civilian attorneys representing a client base of more than 500 detainees. Prior to taking the defense counsel position, Col. Gunn was the Executive Officer to the Air Force Judge Advocate General, where he oversaw the office responsible for organizing, assigning and training more than 2,500 active duty and reserve AF attorneys and paralegals.
The Paul N. and Lita Barnett Luvera Lecture in Law series was created by an endowment gift from the Luveras. Paul Luvera is a 1959 graduate of Gonzaga Law School and gave the first address in the series in 1990. Lita Barnett Luvera, who is a partner in the Luvera Law Firm, received her J.D. from Gonzaga Law School in 1977.
