On Wednesday, April 8, 2015, the National Security Law Journal hosted Cracking Cyber: A Discussion with General Counsel to Demystify the Hacking Phenomenon at the Arlington Campus of the George Mason University. The event featured three panelists: Mr. Daniel Sutherland, the Associate General Counsel from the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. W. Renn Gade, the Senior Legal Counsel from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Ms. Eliana Davidson, the Deputy General Counsel from the Department of Defense. The panel discussed emerging issues in cybersecurity.
About the Panelists
- Ms. Eliana Davidson is currently the Deputy General Counsel, Intelligence, for the United States Department of Defense. Ms. Davidson previously served as the Deputy Legal Advisor for the National Security Council, the Special Counsel to the General Counsel for the Department of Defense, and the Senior Associate Deputy General Counsel, Intelligence, at the Department of Defense. She also served as the Senior Associate Deputy General Counsel, Acting Deputy General Counsel, and Associate Deputy General Counsel at the Department of Defense. Ms. Davidson is a graduate of University of Florida and the University of Virginia School of Law.
- Mr. Renn Gade is currently the Senior Legal Counsel at the National Counterterrorism Center. He is a member of the Senior National Intelligence Service. After retiring from the US Army, he joined the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and served as counsel at the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. While in the military, he served as the Staff Judge Advocate to a number of joint and Army commands, including U.S. Special Operations Command, Multinational Force–Iraq, Multinational Corps–Iraq, XVIII Airborne Corps, and the 82nd Airborne Division. Mr. Gade also served as the Military Assistant to the Department of Defense General Counsel, Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as Chief, International and Operational Law, Office of the Judge Advocate General. He is a graduate of Drake University and Drake University Law School. He also holds an LL.M. from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School and an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College.
- Mr. Daniel Sutherland is the Associate General Counsel for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is the primary legal advisor to the Under Secretary for NPPD, providing advice on issues of cybersecurity, telecommunications, critical infrastructure and biometrics. Previously, Mr. Sutherland served in the Senior National Intelligence Service at the National Counterterrorism Center. Within the Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning, he coordinated government activities designed to prevent violent extremism around the world. Prior to the NCTC, Mr. Sutherland was the first Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Sutherland provided advice to Secretaries Ridge and Chertoff on outreach to American Arab and Muslim communities, watchlists, cybersecurity, immigration law and policy, accessibility of information technology, and emergency management issues. Prior to that, Mr. Sutherland was a civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice for fourteen years. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville and University of Virginia School of Law. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and George Washington University.