Winston S. Williams Jr. (’04)

Category: Alumni Professional Achievement | Awards

2022 Alumni Professional Achievement Award Winner

Since graduating from the UT College of Law in 2004, Colonel Winston Williams Jr. has served the United States Army with honor and distinction culminating in his appointment as Head of the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy in 2021. Williams’ appointment recognizes his proven leadership and astute legal mind that will influence the Army’s future leaders to be mindful of the complexities between modern-day warfare and legal obligations.

An accomplished author, Williams’ influence expands beyond West Point. His book, Complex Battlespaces: the Law of Armed Conflict and the Dynamic of Modern Warfare, is a compilation of chapters from multiple authors that addresses issues at the cross of law and armed conflict. This publication gives the reader understanding from the perspective of academics and practitioners. Through nine other publications, Williams and co-authors also explore the complexities of international law, military operations, and warfare. In addition, Williams served as a managing editor for the Lieber Studies book series from 2016 to 2022, editing and supervising the publication of seven volumes dedicated to the study of the law of war.

Williams’ military service started in 1998 as an Army engineer officer and platoon leader in Korea. The same year Williams graduated from law school in 2004, he transitioned to be a Judge Advocate in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. After joining the JAG Corps, Williams held several legal positions in a range of military assignments at various installations, including Chief of Administrative and Civil Law and Senior Trial Counsel at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Trial Counsel in Iraq; Senior Operational Law Observer/Controller at Fort Polk, Louisiana; and an Associate Professor of Operational and International Law at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Williams served on the University of Tennessee College of Law Alumni Council from 2013 to 2015.