Air Force Judge Advocate General's School Podcast

In this interview, we speak with Colonel Sheri Jones & Mr. Dan O’Connor on the “Digital Transformation” occurring within the Air Force JAG Corps. We discuss why and how the digital transformation is underway, offer some historical context, then move into discussion on applications, the design process, migration to cloud, and even touch upon how this digital transformation impacts the culture of the Corps as a whole.

Colonel Sheri Jones is the Director and Chief Information Officer for the Air Force JAG Corps’ Legal Information Services Directorate located at Maxwell AFB. In this capacity, she is responsible for providing responsive and secure legal-specific information technology solutions to the Air Force and DOD legal communities. She has held a number of positions through her Air Force JAG career to include working at the base legal office, as a professor at the Air Force Academy, Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, Chief of Officer Assignments for the Air Force JAG Corps, as the Staff Judge Advocate at the 30th Space Wing, Vandenberg AFB, CA, and prior to her current position as the Deputy Commandant of the Air Force JAG School.

Our second guest, Mr. Dan O’Connor, is the Deputy Director with Colonel Jones at the Legal Information Services Directorate. He oversees implementation of the Air Force JAG Corps information technology architecture including its case management, knowledge management, learning management and VTC platforms. He also directs the joint/DoD Computer Aided Legal Research capability. Mr. O’Connor began his career as a project engineer at VSA Engineering in Michigan where he designed automotive modeling software for Ford Motor Company. After attending and graduating law school, he practiced corporate law for a law firm in Detroit before transitioning into the Air Force.

In today’s interview we’re going to step outside of the DoD, and speak with ASU Law School Dean Doug Sylvester and Assistant Dean Ray English. They’re here to speak with us on “The Legal Profession in 2021 and Beyond” to include the current state of law schools, the legal sector, their perspectives on legal careers to include within the military, and leadership insights.

ASU Law School Dean Doug Sylvester is the 8th dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Phoenix AZ. Under his leadership, ASU Law reached historic heights where they rank 24th in the nation among all law schools and 7th among public law schools. This is quite an achievement considering they moved up about 24 spots over the last decade from 58th in 2008. From 2012-2020, the law school placed in the top 25 for employment (rising as high as #11 in 2014), hired nearly 60 faculty members, and raised nearly $80 million — more than twice the amount raised in the prior 45 years combined.

In addition to Dean Sylvester’s duties as Dean, he has published, taught and lectured on issues of intellectual property law and commercialization, international law, emerging technologies and privacy. Prior to joining ASU, Dean Sylvester was a Bigelow Fellow and lecturer-in-law at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, an attorney in the Global e-Commerce Practice Group at Baker & McKenzie in Chicago, and a law clerk for U.S. District Judge C. Clyde Atkins in Florida.

Our other guest, Ray English is the Assistant Dean, Office of Career and Employment Services, where he focuses on employment and externships. Prior to joining ASU Law School, Assistant Dean English served as the Associate Director of Career Services at Georgia State University College of Law. And as of relevance to our military listeners, he attended Wentworth Military Junior College where he was recognized as a Distinguish Military Graduate and received a commission in the U.S. Army Reserve. He subsequently served six years as a Staff Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force. Then, upon leaving the military, he became an Assistant Professor of Law at Appalachian School of Law where he taught criminal law and litigation skills.

In this interview, we speak with Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, JoAnne Bass, the first female senior enlisted service member of any US military branch.

We discuss her insights on “The Air Force W Need” including on People, Readiness, and Culture; the challenges the Air Force and DoD face; how she utilizes social media to effectively communicate; to resiliency and leadership tips, especially as we all continue to work through the global pandemic.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, JoAnne Bass, is the senior noncommissioned officer in the United States Air Force. In August 2020, Chief Bass became the 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force and the first female senior enlisted service member of any United States military branch. In this capacity, she serves as the personal advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Brown, and the Secretary of the Air Force, on all issues regarding the welfare, readiness, morale, and proper utilization and progress of more than 600,000 Total Force Airmen.

Over her career spanning nearly 3 decades, she’s held a variety of leadership positions serving at the squadron, group, wing, and major command levels. She has significant joint service and special operations experience and has participated in numerous deployments and exercises in direct support of Operations Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. And prior to her current position she was the Second Air Force's Command Chief Master Sergeant at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi.

This is part 2 of our discussion on the Defense Personal Property Program, or DP3 Program, with Director, Mr. Rick Marsh, and US Transportation Command attorney-advisor, Mr. Bradley Richardson.

This part 2 continues where we left off on part 1. We continue our discussion on the DP3 Program to include how the DP3 team conducts strategic communication, innovates, works legal issues, and operates to improve the overall experience for customers, contractors, and other stakeholders.

In this 2-episode interview, we discuss the Defense Personal Property Program, or DP3 Program, with Director, Mr. Rick Marsh, and US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) attorney-advisor, Mr. Bradley Richardson.

The DP3 Program deals with the movement of household goods and POVs, non-temporary storage, and the DoD management framework. We discuss the challenges faced by the DP3 Program, innovative solutions that the team is working on, and how they conduct strategic communication to their stakeholders including customers, contractors, senior leaders, Congress, through litigation, and others.

Today’s interview is the second consecutive interview with environmental law subject matter experts. In this interview, we have the pleasure to speak with Mr. Jim Cannizzo, a retired Air Force JAG, and current Senior Attorney-Advisor in the Mission Sustainment and Planning Branch of the Environmental Law Field Support Center, San Antonio, Texas.

We discuss “The Wind Energy Boom” including some of the biggest wind energy challenges faced both within the Air Force and DoD. We also continue our discussion on the interplay between environmental law and military operations, and how this impacts our national security.

Today's interview is the first of two separate interviews with environmental law subject matter experts. We have the pleasure to speak with Mr. Joseph Miller, to discuss Environmental Law and Air Force Operations. We plan to discuss some the biggest environmental law challenges we face both within the Air Force and DoD and the interplay between environmental law and operational law – an area often overlooked but very important from a national security perspective.

Mr. Miller is the Chief of the Air Force Environmental Law Field Support Center, located in San Antonio, Texas which is now part of the Operations & International Law Directorate, Office of The Judge Advocate General. He leads a team of 32 attorneys and paralegals located at 9 locations in advising the headquarters staff, major commands and subordinate legal offices of the US Air Force on all environmental and land use statutes, regulations and policies.

In this interview we sit down with Master Sergeant Austin Hardin, an active duty Air Force paralegal, to discuss his 2013 combat experience in Afghanistan. This combat experience earned him a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his heroic actions in an insurgent convoy attack where he was initially rendered unconscious by a vehicle born IED, recovered, immediately began returning fire, and saved the lives of the other passengers.

MSgt Hardin discusses the convoy experience and how he worked to recover after being injured in the convoy attack and assimilate back into his legal office. He also offers some leadership principles and takeaways that he learned through the experience.

Welcome to Part 2 of The Birth of the Special Victims' Counsel (SVC) Program with (Retired) Lieutenant General Richard Harding, The Judge Advocate General of the United States Air Force from 2010-2014, who was instrumental in creating the SVC program.

This Part 2 continues where we left off from Part 1 as General Harding discusses the seminal case of LRM v Kastenberg that afforded victims counsel certain legal rights on behalf of their clients, how universities across the country are now modeling aspects of military procedure in their administrative Title 9 sex assault cases on campus, and his views on how to effectuate positive change.

In this 2-part interview we discuss The Birth of the Special Victims' Counsel (SVC) Program with (Retired) Lieutenant General Richard Harding, The Judge Advocate General of the United States Air Force from 2010-2014, who was instrumental in creating the SVC program that affords sex assault victims independent legal counsel.

In this Part 1, we take a behind-the-scenes look at how the SVC Program was created. General Harding discusses the initial opposition to the program, its biggest challenges, and how he worked to effectuate positive change.