Ashley S. Deeks of UVA School of Law has been named White House associate counsel and deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council in the new presidential administration.
Professor Deeks is an expert in national security who previously served as a legal adviser to the State Department. She joined UVA Law in 2012 as an associate professor of law after two years as an academic fellow at Columbia Law School. She became director of UVA Law’s National Security Law Center last year.
Before academia, she served as the assistant legal adviser for political-military affairs in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, where she worked on issues related to the law of armed conflict, the use of force, conventional weapons and the legal framework for the conflict with al-Qaida. She also provided advice on intelligence issues. In previous positions at the State Department, Professor Deeks advised on international law enforcement, extradition and diplomatic property questions. In 2005, she served as the embassy legal adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, during Iraq’s constitutional negotiations.
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