Stephen H. Carpenter, Jr., is a litigator whose practice solely focuses on defending military criminal, administrative and investigation matters. He has been ranked in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 by one ranking service as one of the top three civilian military defense attorneys in the United States. He is currently the President/Chair of the Washington State Bar Association's Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP) Section.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Defense selected Stephen for admission into The Pool of Qualified Civilian Defense Counsel to Practice before the Military Commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mr. Carpenter represents service members in Article 32 investigations, and in court-martial trials and appeals. He also represents uniformed members in hearings in administrative proceedings within all branches of military service. He also defends formal and informal command investigations.
Mr. Carpenter has been in government and private practice for over 16-years, where he has been lead defense counsel in many criminal investigations, trials, and boards. He is a former JAG and with extensive civil litigation experience in complex employment related disputes focusing on back-pay and unlawful discharge issues.
Stephen is an active trial lawyer who recently successfully defended a Soldier in a military jury trial, in which not guilty jury verdict was returned on all counts. Mr. Carpenter has successfully petitioned the various military services in upgrading discharges.
Military clients not only benefit from his national reputation as a trial lawyer. Mr. Carpenter has published several articles on military justice, including: Federal Criminal Practice: A Military Justice Primer; Resolving the Torture Memo Conundrum by Court-Martial; Guantanamo 101: Rejecting Cruel, Unusual and Degrading Justice; Military Commissions: Justice Guantanamo Style; Defending Gay Soldiers Who Defend America; and Blessed are the Peacemakers: Remembering Kosovo. He is currently working on another article discussing Posttraumatic Disorder defenses, entitled PTSD: When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things.
Stephen has served as an adjunct instructor in trial advocacy at the University of Washington, School of Law. He has also taught effective oral advocacy techniques for the Attorney General’s Office, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, American Bar Association and Seattle Academy.
In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice certified Mr. Carpenter in criminal trial advocacy, at its National Advocacy Center in South Carolina.
When not zealously advocating for his clients, Mr. Carpenter dedicates time to a host of legislative issues associated with the legal rights of service members. He is likewise an active member of the Judge Advocate General Association, American Bar Association, Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Criminal and International Law Sections of the Washington State Bar Association.
Mr. Carpenter formerly served as an Assistant Attorney General (AAG), primarily prosecuting medical and dental professional licensing cases. His duties generally required familiarization with medical standards of care and an acumen for the effective use and cross-examination of medical expert witnesses. During this period Mr. Carpenter prevailed in each of the 12 contested cases that he litigated before medical and dental health care boards. This background has proven invaluable in litigating military disability cases.
