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James B. Comey

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Y TOPIC TODAY

is “Intelligence Under the Law.” I want to divide my remarks into two parts: First, I’d like to start with a plug for lawyers, in a way you may not expect. Let’s call the first part: “Intelligence Under the Law – The Value of a Legal Education.” In the second part, I’d like to talk about the hardest thing lawyers, acting as law- yers, do in the intelligence community – say “no.”

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ow, on to the unappreciated value of a legal education. I have read a lot of intelligence products over the last four years, both finished pieces and so-called “raw” intelligence. As a beginner, like a beginner in anything, I assumed that those who did this for a living – those who analyzed and wrote about intelligence – were so trained, so steeped, so talented, that I couldn’t possibly run with them.

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James B. Comey was Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 2 003 to 2005 and is now General Counsel of Lockheed Martin Corporation. This essay was originally delivered as a speech at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, on Law Day, May 20, 2005.

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