A former UK Chief of the Defence Staff has singled out BWL’s Lee Marler for praise. Lord Richards of Hertsmonceux (formerly General Sir David Richards) in his recently published, serialised and best selling autobiography titled Taking Command (Headline Publishing Group (2014) ISBN 97814722 20844) writes at page 110 as follows:
“Another key player [in East Timor in 1999] was Lieutenant Colonel Lee Marler of the Army Legal Corps, who was my operational lawyer. Modern Generals need to have in their back pockets not the sapper and gunner of tradition, but a media man and a lawyer. If you haven’t got those cards in your deck, you’re lost. The Australians soon realised that they needed to put the new country of East Timor on a legal footing but they didn’t have anyone within their military with that background. I had someone in Lee Marler. In the month or so that we were in East Timor, he worked all hours to draft a new constitution. He deserves huge credit for what he did. He based it on the international laws of war and it served as a transitional structure while a new long-term constitution was drafted, which the UN did the following year. The Australians did not much like the fact that my lawyer had done it but took it on the chin, generously giving Lee many plaudits when he left. Since leaving the Army, Marler has become a successful barrister with his own chambers.”
Chambers congratulates Lee on this public recognition for his Rule of Law work.
Lee heads up the BWL Rule of Law and IHL Teams and can be contacted at leemarler@brettonwoodslaw.com.