President Obama Appoints Phillip Carter as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs

April 30, 2009 - President Obama appoints McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP (MLA) attorney Phillip Carter to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs. 

Phil Carter joined MLA’s Los Angeles office in 2004, and later transferred to the New York office.  Since his start with the firm he has been an integral part of the national Government Contracts practice, involved in a wide variety of projects and assignments, including pro bono efforts related to detainee issues.

“We are tremendously proud of Phil for taking on this challenging assignment,” said former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and firm member, Paul McHale, who also served in Afghanistan as a colonel in the Marine Corps reserve.  “His new role in the Administration is extremely significant in a time of such heightened awareness to these types of issues.”  McHale continued, “as a firm, MLA encourages its members to seek outside opportunities and engage in public service.”  MLA lawyer Jim Schweiter, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower & Reserve Affairs, as well as the former General Counsel of the House Armed Services Committee, said “Phil has the right combination of experience and judgment to take on this challenging position at a key moment in our nation’s history.  We wish him the best in this important new role for the country.” 

While with MLA, Carter has written extensively on legal and military issues for a variety of publications including Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.  He has also been a leading advocate for veterans, and helped found the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, playing a central role in the organization’s efforts to fully fund veterans healthcare, increase funding for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injuries, and pass a new GI Bill.  During the 2008 election, Carter served as a policy adviser to the Obama campaign, and later as the Obama-Biden campaign’s national veterans director.

Prior to joining MLA, Carter served as an officer in the United States Army, including nine years of active and reserve service with military police and civil affairs units.  In 2005-06, he took a leave of absence from MLA to deploy to Iraq with the Army's 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an adviser to the Iraqi police. 

Carter received his B.A. cum laude, as well as his J.D., from UCLA. 

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