WHITE PLAINS, NY, November 6, 2003 — James B. Comey, President George W. Bush’s nominee to become Deputy Attorney General and currently United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, will lecture on fighting terrorism and civil liberties among other topics, on November 12, 2003 at 4 P.M. at Pace Law School in White Plains, NY.

He will speak in the New York State Judicial Institute at Pace Law School at 78 North Broadway, White Plains, NY 10603. Comey will be the keynote speaker for the Law School’s Philip B. Blank Memorial Lecture on Attorney Ethics.

Pace Law Dean David Cohen stated, "The Patriot Act, enacted after September 11, 2001, represents a profound shift in the approach of the United States government to the threat of terrorism on American soil. Mr. Comey will discuss the balance between protecting the security of American citizens, while recognizing the Constitutional values that define our nation. Fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberties are two ideas that, for the foreseeable future, the United States, and indeed many countries, will be struggling with. This will be an important event."

Comey was appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York on January 7, 2002. Before that, he served from 1996 through 2001 as Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the Richmond Division of the United States Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia. There he handled the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing case, arising out of the June 1996 attack on a U.S. military facility in Saudi Arabia in which 19 Airmen were killed.

Mr. Comey graduated from the College of William & Mary (B.S. with Honors 1982, Chemistry and Religion majors) and University of Chicago Law School (J.D. 1985). After law school, he served as a law clerk for then-United States District Judge John M. Walker, Jr. in Manhattan, and worked for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in their New York Office. He next joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he worked from 1987 to 1993, eventually serving as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.

As a federal prosecutor, he has investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of cases, including firearms, narcotics, major frauds, violent crime, public corruption, terrorism, and organized crime. In the Southern District of New York, he served as lead prosecutor in United States v. John Gambino et al., a six-month mafia racketeering and murder trial.

In Richmond, Mr. Comey also served as an Adjunct Professor of law at the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s office in Richmond in 1996, he was a partner at McGuireWoods, LLP specializing in criminal defense and commercial litigation.

Founded in 1976, Pace Law School is a New York Law School with a suburban campus in White Plains, N.Y., 20 miles north of New York City. Part of Pace University, the school offers the J.D. program for full-time and part-time day and evening students. Its postgraduate program includes the LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in Environmental Law and an LL.M. in Comparative Legal Studies. Pace has one of the nation's top-rated Environmental Law programs and its Clinical Education program also is nationally ranked, offering clinics in domestic violence prosecution, environmental law, securities arbitration, criminal justice and disability rights. www.law.pace.edu 

Pace is a comprehensive, independent university with campuses in New York City, Pleasantville and White Plains, NY and a Hudson Valley Center at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, NY. More than 14,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lubin School of Business, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, School of Education, Lienhard School of Nursing and Pace Law School. www.pace.edu