Colonel James M. Durant III
Colonel James M. Durant III, USAF Ret., serves in the United States (US) federal Senior Executive Service. He is currently Chief Counsel, US Department of Energy, Office of Science, with legal cognizance over 11 of the 17 US National Laboratories.
He served 26 years in the Air Force as a Judge Advocate (JAG), and was a Special Assistant US Attorney and War Claims Commissioner in Bosnia. He also served as the NATO Legal Advisor (LEGAD) for NATO Air South and later NATO HQ Sarajevo. While stationed in the UK, he was the Legal Advisor for 30,000 US Forces and the Acting US Country Representative to Her Majesty’s Government.
He is a leader on the International Judicial Task Force drafting guidance for trying cases before the International Criminal Court. He was the Legal Director and Assistant Professor of Law at the US Air Force Academy supervising 18 Professors of Law. While at the Pentagon, he was Chief of JAG Personnel Policy, JAG Accessions and JAG Recruiting. He has led several JAG offices and was three times the Outstanding JAG of the Year. At the US State Department, he drafted the authority to negotiate with Russia for START II.
In the American Bar Association (ABA) he led a 24,000 member Division, a Committee on the ABA Board of Governors, and was a delegate to the ABA House of Delegates for 15 years. He presently chairs the Chicago Federal Executive Board with responsibility for over 50,000 federal employees and previously chaired the US Senior Executives Association. He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the ABA Young Lawyers Fellows, which he chairs. He has received several ABA awards, is well published and an internationally recognized keynote speaker.
A graduate of Howard University where he earned his Military Commission, Bachelors and Juris Doctorate, he is admitted to practice law before the US Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals for Armed Forces and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He is married to Karen Durant and has two sons, Jonathan and James.