President Obama Nominates Professor Scott L. Silliman and William B. Pollard, III to Serve on the US Court of Military Commission Review

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, President Obama nominated Professor Scott L. Silliman and William B. Pollard, III to serve on the United States Court of Military Commission Review.

“Today I am proud to appoint Scott L. Silliman and William B. Pollard to serve on the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review,” said President Obama.  “Their extensive experience in both military and civilian law make them uniquely qualified to both protect our national security interests and uphold our highest judicial standards.”

Professor Scott L. Silliman:  Nominee for the United States Court of Military Commission Review
Professor Scott L. Silliman is a Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke University School of Law, where his teaching and research interests focus on national security law, military law, and the law of armed conflict.  In addition, he served as Executive Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at the Law School from its inception in 1993 until July of 2011, and now serves as its Director Emeritus.  He received his B.A. in Philosophy in 1965 and his J.D. in 1968 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  After graduating from law school, he was called to active duty as an Air Force judge advocate.  During his 25-year career as a military attorney, he held a variety of leadership positions, including staff judge advocate and senior attorney for Tactical Air Command and later Air Combat Command.   During the Persian Gulf War, he supervised the deployment of all Air Force attorneys and paralegals incident to Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm.  Professor Silliman retired from the Air Force in 1993 and assumed his current position at Duke. 
 
William B. Pollard, III:  Nominee for the United States Court of Military Commission Review
William B. Pollard, III is a named partner at Kornstein Veisz Wexler & Pollard, LLP in New York City, where he has worked since 1993.  At the firm, he specializes in complex civil and white collar criminal cases, and grand jury and regulatory investigations.  From 1981 to 1993, Pollard was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.  He served as the Deputy Chief in the Criminal Division of that office from 1988 to 1993.  Pollard began his legal career at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison, where he worked from 1974 until 1981.  He earned his A.B. at Washington University in St. Louis in 1970, and a joint J.D. and M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1974.