Elected Member

Paul David Stern

Washington, DC
U.S. Department of the Interior
Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
American University, Washington College of Law

Paul Stern currently serves as Senior Counsel for Law Enforcement Policy and Litigation at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI).  In that role, he handles an array of legal matters concerning DOI’s law enforcement programs, including policy development, disciplinary proceedings, civil litigation, and contracting.  Prior to joining DOI, Paul spent 13 years as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  There, Paul represented the United States in some of the most prominent civil actions concerning federal law enforcement activity, including cases stemming from the school shooting in Parkland, Florida; the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas; prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; and the FBI’s post-September 11, 2001 investigation of terrorist suspects in the United States.  Paul also serves as General Counsel (pro bono) to Ascend–Leadership Through Athletics, a U.S. based non-profit organization working in Afghanistan to empower young women through athletics-based leadership training.  Paul had the great fortune of helping to train the young women in Kabul and the Panjshir Valley.  When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, Ascend successfully evacuated 137 Afghans, mostly young women, and relocated them to seven different countries where they continue their personal development towards a brighter future.  Paul is also a Contributor to the Lawfare Blog, published by the Lawfare Institute in cooperation with the Brookings Institute, and has published law review articles in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform and the Rutgers University Law Review.  Paul previously taught as an Adjunct Professor at the American University Washington College of Law and clerked for then-Associate Justice Virginia Long of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

 Paul David Stern Image
Areas of Expertise
Tort Law
Trials (Litigation)