Dwight Stirling

Dwight Stirling is the founder and chief executive officer of the Center for Law and Military Policy, a think tank dedicated to strengthening the legal protections of those who serve the nation in uniform. Stirling is also a reserve JAG officer in the California National Guard and co-founder of Veterans Legal Institute.

Stirling has received national recognition for his scholarship on the National Guard and the Feres Doctrine. His article in a University Texas journal about the legal structure of the National Guard is the leading academic piece on the subject, an article entitled, “With All Due Respect, Mr. President, We’re Not Going to Follow that Order: How and Why States Decide Which Federal Military Rules Apply to State National Guard Personnel.” His article “The Feres Doctrine and Accountability” was recently published by the Journal of Law, Policy, and Military Affairs, one of the articles he has written about the judicial policy that bars service members from filing tort suits.

Stirling was an active duty JAG officer from 2007 to 2014. He was the California National Guard’s senior prosecutor for many years and has tried more state courts-martial than any JAG officer in California’s history. Stirling’s commitment to the country and its service members began in December of 2001, when he joined the Army National Guard shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11. He was commissioned from California’s reserve Officer Candidate School as an Armor officer in 2004, becoming a JAG officer the following year to utilize his law degree.

In 2009, Stirling was deployed to the Balkans with the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led international peacekeeping force responsible for preventing recurrences of ethnic cleansing in the volatile southern region of Serbia. He served as chief of military justice on the mission, working under Major General (Retired) Keith D. Jones.

At present, Stirling chairs the Orange County Bar Association’s Veterans and Military Committee. He also teaches criminal justice at Columbia College of Missouri’s Los Alamitos campus. He has received numerous military awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters.

Stirling holds a BA degree in Philosophy from Pomona College, an MA degree in Education from Whittier College, and a JD from USC Gould. He is currently working on an EdD at Pepperdine University. He got his start in law at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP’s Century City offices and in his first career, he taught literature and language arts at the middle school level.

  

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

The Washington Post
June 12, 2019
Re: Niels W. Frenzen

Niels W. Frenzen was quoted about the case of Scott Warren, an activist who was arrested and charged with harboring and conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants. In 2017, a directive from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prioritize cases involving the transportation of undocumented immigrants,"brought to a head the conflict between immigration enforcement and a sanctuary movement that reaches back to the 1980s," explained Frenzen. "While maintaining a spiritual element, the movement has become more political and less religious...especially as the Trump administration draws stark battle lines on immigration," he said. Frenzen's quote was also mentioned in the National Post, Daily Herald, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette, Leader Post, Ottawa Citizen, The London Free Press, The Star Phoenix, Canada.com, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Province.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Lisa Klerman
April, 2019

“Labor and Employment Law Jeopardy,” Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Annual Retreat, Westlake Village, CA.

Hannah Garry
April, 2019

Hannah Garry co-facilitated "#MeToo" at the International Human Rights Clinicians Conference held at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania Law School.

Thomas D. Lyon
April, 2019

Tom Lyon received a one-year $250,000 grant from the California Office of Emergency Services Child Advocacy Center Program for his and his lab's interviewing work in the Los Angeles County Dependency Court.