Associate Fellows

David Benjamin

Lieutenant-Colonel (Reserve) David Benjamin is an Israel-based attorney specializing in International Law, the Law of Armed Conflict and Counter-Terrorism. As a career officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Col. Benjamin served, inter alia, as the Chief Legal Advisor for the Gaza Strip (2001 – 2005) as well as Director of the International and Strategic Branch in the IDF's International Law Department (2006 – 2009). In these positions, he played a key role in providing operational legal advice to military commanders and developing legal responses to situations arising in asymmetric conflicts. He was also involved in drafting the State's arguments in response to numerous petitions submitted to the Israel Supreme Court. Now in private practice, Lt. Col. Benjamin provides consulting services to government and international organizations. He also lectures to audiences, both in Israel and abroad and is a frequent commentator in the local and international media. Lt. Col. Benjamin holds an LLM from Tel Aviv University as well as Bachelor's degrees in Law and Political Science from the University of Cape Town.

Amos Hausner

Amos Hausner graduated the Hebrew University School of Law in 1975, where he was a member of the editorial staff of the law journal, was on the dean's list, and was admitted to the Israeli bar in 1976. In the years 1975-1976, he was a research assistant at the Hebrew University, focusing on the law of evidence. In the years 1977-1978 he practiced in the New York law firm of Wilkie, Farr and Gallagher (established by Wendel Wilkie, candidate to presidency against Roosevelt). He later returned to Israel to become a partner in the law firm of his father, the late Gideon Hausner who was the Attorney General of the State of Israel in the sixties and was the prosecuting attorney in the trial of the Jewish People against Nazi criminal Adolph Eichmann. Mr. Hausner became the successor of his father’s law firm in 1983.

From 1998-2006, Mr. Hausner sat as a Judge of the High Court of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). In 2006, he was appointed the Attorney General of the WZO, a position he held until August 2010, and on that year he also served as General Counsel to the WZO.

Mr. Hausner is currently a member of the board of directors of Massuah, International Institute for Holocaust Studies, and of the lay board of FAMRI (Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute). He is also a member of the disciplinary tribunal of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and he chaired the legislative committee of the Jerusalem Bar Association in 2003-2004.

Mr. Hausner's practice includes international, constitutional, business, civil and administrative law, including class actions. One of the famous cases in which he was involved is the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls, before the Supreme Court of Israel, which involved questions of history and copyright. He is also involved in tort litigation, and participated in several cases which set precedents in contract law.

Bertil Häggman

Bertil Häggman is Director of the Center for Research on Geopolitics, and has published over 150 books and journal articles in various languages in the United States, England, Northern Ireland, Germany, Norway, Republic of China, Republic of Korea, and Sweden. He is a recipient of the United Cultural Convention's International Peace Price, the Swedish Photocopy Fund, and multiple honors by the Swedish Author's Fund.

Paul Kaplan

Paul Kaplan is a partner/attorney at the law firm of Alston & Bird in the firm's Litigation & Trial Practice Group specializing in antitrust litigation and counseling. He represents domestic and foreign financial institutions and corporations in federal and state litigation and regulatory matters, and has advised them on the antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions, as well as a broad range of industries on general antitrust matters. He counsels corporations on the antitrust ramifications of business transactions with a view to avoiding or minimizing exposure to antitrust claims in litigation and represents financial institutions facing regulatory or court enforcement actions. Mr. Kaplan secured a significant victory in federal and state civil litigations in California, where he was representing a large financial institution facing claims associated with a terminated joint venture. In order to counter claim against the Plaintiffs, Mr. Kaplan was able to successfully assert four separate claims, which survived an Iqbal/Twombly Motion to Dismiss, which requires a heightened pleading standard as set down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and was able to settle the cases on favorable terms for his client. He has practiced law for more than 25 years with major law firms and corporations in the United States and Europe, and has also held the title of vice president at Citibank, NA (Citigroup) in the General Counsel's Office and at J.P. Morgan Chase (Chemical Bank), where he was group counsel on the bank's Middle Market/Financial Services Group. Mr. Kaplan is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, where he has taught an advanced antitrust course since 1991. In February 2006, he organized, on behalf of the government of Israel, a financial services delegation to Israel led by the late Honorable Jack Kemp (former U.S. Representative from New York, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Republican Party nominee for Vice President in 1996). He currently serves on the Executive, Strategic Planning and Law (Pro Bono) Committees of the Board of Directors for the America-Israel Friendship League, and previously served on The London School of Economics' New York Development Committee. Mr. Kaplan also frequently speaks and writes about litigation and antitrust issues.

Michael Lebowitz

Michael J. Lebowitz is currently a prosecutor with the Office of Military Commissions. In this capacity, he is tasked with prosecuting various high-value terrorism suspects that are currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is assigned to several active cases, and is lead military prosecutor in a case relating to an accused "white collar war criminal" that is implicated in al Qaeda's purported "second wave" of post-9/11 attacks against the United States. Prior to being selected to the prosecutor position, Mr. Lebowitz engaged in numerous military defense cases as both a private practice attorney and as a Judge Advocate in the Virginia Army National Guard. He is recognized as an authority on the subject of military expression, and has been quoted in such media outlets as the Washington Post, Associated Press, USA Today, CNN, Kansas City Star and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He also has testified to separate US House and Senate hearings as a legal expert on the subject of military expression and military whistleblower reform. In addition, Mr. Lebowitz has experience in domestic and international litigation with the Washington, DC law firm of Greenberg & Lieberman. Previously, he was a reporter and columnist with the Jerusalem Post. In 2005-2006, Mr. Lebowitz served in Iraq as a paratrooper with the elite Pathfinder Company of the 101st Airborne Division. He was recognized by the command for his direct role in capturing high-value individuals throughout Iraq that included foreign fighters, insurgents, terrorist masterminds and financiers. He has authored multiple articles relating to war crimes prosecution and international law. Mr. Lebowitz earned a JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a BA from Kent State University.

Joshua Slomich

Joshua Slomich is in-house counsel with a financial services corporation in New York City.  From 1999-2000 Mr. Slomich worked as a Law Clerk to the Justices of the Superior Court of Massachusetts.  From 2001-2005 Mr. Slomich served on active duty in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he held various positions including Chief of Military Justice and Chief of Operational Law.  As Chief of Operational Law, Mr. Slomich was responsible for briefing personnel on the Law of Armed Combat, including the distinctions between lawful and unlawful combatants and the treatment of Prisoners of War.  Mr. Slomich was also appointed as a Military Prosecutor and Defense Counsel, as well as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Delaware.  In addition to trying felony and misdemeanor cases in courts-martial and federal court, Mr. Slomich represented engineers, physicians and other professionals appearing before credentialing/evaluation boards.  During his time on active duty, Mr. Slomich was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War Against Terrorism Service Medal and twice was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal. 

He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and earned his Juris Doctor cum laude from Suffolk University Law School where he also served as an Articles Editor for the Suffolk Transnational Law Review and was awarded the Suffolk University Law School Jurisprudence Award for excellence in Constitutional Law.  Mr. Slomich is the author of  The Taif Accord: Legalizing the Syrian Occupation of Lebanon, 22:2 Suffolk Transnat’l L. Rev. (1999).

Guglielmo Verdirame

Dr. Guglielmo Verdirame is a University Lecturer, University of Cambridge Fellow, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, a Barrister at 20 Essex St Chambers, and London Affiliated Professor with the University of Haifa (to oppose academic blacklists). He is the author, along with B.E. Harrell-Bond, of Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism, and is the author of UN Accountability: Compliance with Human Rights, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, along with many articles dealing with every aspect of public international law, political philosophy, international law and constitutional law.

Student Fellows

Gabriel Latner

Gabriel Latner is a Law student at the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining The Lawfare Project, Gabriel worked at a variety og word-class think-tanks, NGOs, and advocacy groups.

In 2010, while working at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Gabriel produced a hundred-year timeline of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Palestinian Authority and its predecessors, involving the collation of hundreds of primary sources. While at FDD Gabriel was also involved in research and advocacy relating to Iran's nuclear activity and shipping practices that violate European and American Law.

In 2011 he testified at the United Nations Human Rights Council about non-discrimination, singling out Council Members China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia.

Gabriel has worked on election campaigns at a municipal and federal level, and interned with Member of Parliament and former Justice Minister of Canada, Professor Irwin Cotler, whom he continues to work with.

He has been published in the National Post, The Jerusalem Post, and the American Thinker.