Washington, DC (August 26, 2008) -- The latest addition to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ professional staff is Michael W. Price, NACDL’s first full-time Coordinator for National Security. A recent graduate of New York University School of Law, Michael will be working in the association’s national office in Washington, D.C., where his chief responsibilities will be serving as project coordinator for the Guantanamo defense teams (the John Adams Project) and guiding NACDL’s efforts to address expansion of government power under the rubric of national security.
As NACDL Coordinator for National Security, Michael will work closely with Counsel for Special Projects Malia Brink, who will continue to oversee NACDL’s participation in the John Adams Project, which provides experienced civilian capital defense lawyers to assist designated military defense counsel in death penalty proceedings at Guantanamo. Michael will provide administrative, technical, and legal support for the defense teams, identifying research and analysis and helping to secure pro bono assistance wherever possible. He will also work with Associate Executive Director for Policy Kyle O’Dowd to provide broad-based support to defense counsel throughout the country who must confront curtailment of fundamental constitutional rights in the name of national security.
“This is a great honor,” Michael said, adding, “I will work tirelessly to ensure that the fundamental American values of justice and due process are preserved in times of national hardship. The military commissions pose a grave threat to these values and I look forward to working with the Guantanamo defense teams to help restore America’s reputation as a nation committed to human rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law.”
At NYU Law School, Michael was a Symposium Editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics. As a student advocate with the law school’s International Human Rights Clinic, Michael represented two Yemeni nationals unlawfully detained by the United States. Michael also served as Student Research Director of the school’s Center on Law and Security, creating and maintaining a database tracking all terrorism-related prosecutions in the United States since September 11, 2001, supervising research assistants and fielding media inquiries.
Earlier this year, as a project leader for the ACLU of New York’s National Security Project, he and his research team analyzed the treatment of classified evidence, affidavits and ex parte filings in federal courts around the country.
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NACDL Communications Department
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.