Students commissioned as JAG officers aboard USS Constitution

On May 14, several members of the Harvard Law School community came together aboard the U.S.S. Constitution as three Harvard Law School students swore oaths to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” as part of their commission as officers in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps.

Joshua Fiveson ’14, Jordi Torres ’13 and Lee Hiromoto ’13 were commissioned into the Navy JAG Corps by Cmdr. Mike Adams LL.M. ’13, in a ceremony aboard the historic battleship in Boston. Lt. Cmdr. Greg Saybolt LL.M. ’13 and Lt. Cmdr. Matt Ivey LL.M. ’13, both lawyers in the U.S. Navy and members of the JAG Corps, were also involved in the ceremony.

The J.D. students were commissioned as ensigns through the Navy JAG Corps Student Program. The program permits law students to commission as ensigns in the inactive Naval Reserve while attending law school. After graduation, passage of the bar exam and the completion of Officer Development School, participants serve on active duty for four years.

While at Harvard Law School, Fiveson, who graduated from George Mason University in 2010, served as a line editor with the International Law Journal and as a senior editor with the National Security Journal. He also worked as a law clerk with Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and is currently a summer associate with Latham & Watkins.

Torres graduated in 2010 from Brown University. At HLS, he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, where he represented low-income clients in local family courts. He was a submissions editor for the Harvard International Law Journal and volunteered as an English teacher. He spent last summer interning at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in the Special Victims Bureau.

At HLS, Hiromoto, a 2006 graduate of Yale University, interned with several district attorneys and attorneys general, prosecuting criminal cases at the trial and appellate level. He also assisted low-income women with family law and domestic violence matters at Harvard’s Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain. Hiromoto was a senior editor on the National Security Journal and has been an active member of HLS Lambda.

A Navy judge advocate since 2002 and a Bronze Star recipient, Adams was a surface warfare officer aboard two warships and completed deployments across the Western Pacific, Arabian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq. Adams, who received his J.D. from Georgetown, will serve next as deputy legal counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

Ivey received his J.D. from Boston College and has been a Navy judge advocate since 2009. He was a surface warfare officer aboard two warships and has completed deployments to the Western Pacific and Iraq. He will next serve as staff judge advocate to commander, Carrier Strike Group One, in San Diego, CA.

Saybolt received his J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and has been a Navy judge advocate since 2008. He has completed deployments to the Arabian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan, served as a Surface War Officer aboard the USS Ardent, and will next serve as staff judge advocate to commander, Carrier Strike Group Eighth in Norfolk, VA.