Overview
Michel Paradis is a seasoned litigator with extensive expertise in appellate litigation, technology law, and international and national security law. His clients receive unparalleled legal representation in even the most complex and challenging cases. With a distinguished career spanning over two decades, Michel has led numerous high-profile cases across various judicial platforms, including state, federal, and foreign courts. Michel's dedication to his practice, coupled with his in-depth knowledge and strategic acumen, ensures that his clients are consistently provided with top-tier legal counsel and effective advocacy tailored to their unique needs.
His profound understanding of appellate strategies and procedural intricacies makes him a formidable advocate in multi-district and multi-fora litigation, having led every appellate posture, including petitions for review, habeas corpus actions, extraordinary writs, and petitions for certiorari. He has exceptional insight into the standards of review, rules of appellate procedure, and nuances of jurisdiction and is accustomed to managing the unique challenges presented by multi-district/multi-fora litigation.
With a doctorate from Oxford University, where he did pioneering work on large language models, Michel provides real, actionable insights into the legal risks and opportunities presented by the revolutionary advance of artificial intelligence. Michel has advised technology companies ranging from industry giants to innovative start-ups, and companies across all sectors, which are now grappling with what AI means for their industry. Whether it has been in the context of litigation, or simply providing jargon-free advice, Michel has a unique talent for explaining the law to those whose priority is the technology, and the technology to those whose priority is the law, because he has done both for decades.
In parallel with his stellar litigation career, Michel is a world-renowned scholar. He has been a Lecturer at Columbia Law School since 2014, and was previously an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, teaching courses on national security law, international law, and constitutional law. He lectures widely and has appeared on or written for major global media outlets and specialist security journals, including, to name a few, Netflix, CBS, MSNBC, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Lawfare.
Most recently, he authored the critically acclaimed biography of Dwight Eisenhower, The Light of Battle (HarperCollins 2024), and Last Mission to Tokyo (Simon & Schuster 2020), about war crimes trials in the Pacific after World War II. He is also a fellow at the Center on National Security, on the board of the National Institute for Military Justice, and a contributing editor at Lawfare.
- New York
- Supreme Court of the United States
- US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
- US District Court, Southern District of New York
- US District Court, District of Columbia
- US Court of Appeals, Armed Forces
- International Criminal Court
- D. Phil, University of Oxford, Computational Linguistics
- J.D., Fordham University School of Law, magna cum laude
- B.A., Fordham University, cum laude
Areas of Work
Speaking Engagements
- Guest Speaker, The Army Navy Club (January 28, 2025)
- Keynote, Veterans Day Commemoration, Desales University (November 11, 2024)
- Distinguished Speaker Series, The Army-Navy Country Club (October 24, 2024)
- Presidential Lecture, Costal Carolina University (October 17, 2024)
- Harvey J. Wilkinson Lecture, Virginia Historical Society (October 16, 2024)
- Lecture, Roosevelt Reading Festival, FDR Presidential Library (June 22, 2024)
- Panelist, Are Legal and Human Rights Challenges at a Tipping Point In Changing the Arms Trade?, Forum on the Arms Trade (June 5, 2024)
- Lecture, Eisenhower and the Planning of Operation Overlord, Smithsonian Museum (June 3, 2024)
- Moderator, AI’s Disruptive Implications for Global Security, Academic Exchange (November 4, 2023)
- Panelist, Prosecuting War Crimes in U.S. Courts, International Law Weekend, American Branch of the International Law Association (October 20, 2023)
- Panelist, The Changing Role Of The ICJ in Light of The Gambia v. Myanmar, 46th Annual Wolfgang Friedmann Conference, Columbia Law School (March 2, 2020)
- Commenter, Revisiting the Role of International Law Into National Security Workshop, International Committee of The Red Cross (July 12, 2019)
- Commenter, International Law and National Security Workshop, International Committee of the Red Cross (New York, NY, June 18, 2018)
- Panelist, New Directions In Military History, American Historical Association Annual Conference (January 4, 2018)
- Panelist, Constraining the Executive: The Role of the Judiciary in Foreign Affairs, Wolfgang Friedmann Conference, Columbia University (New York, NY, April 13, 2017)
- The Changing Face of Child Soldiers, Delivered at US State Department & US Institute of Peace Joint Policy Forum on Children and Armed Conflict (Washington, DC, September 17, 2008)
- Lecture, The Associational Basis of Marked Dichotomies, 10th International Pragmatics Conference (July 8, 2007)
- Lecture, Numerically Discriminating Semantic Relations From Corpora, 2nd Annual Numerical Analysis Student Conference, Oxford University (December 2006) (Second Prize)
News & Publications
Events
Seminars & Events
Sixth Annual Regulatory Symposium
May 14, 2025
Speakers: Lauren Azebu, Karen Bruni, Tyler Evans, Anne-Gabrielle Haie, Pantelis Michalopoulos, Michel Paradis, Michael L. Weiner, Lisa M. Zarlenga
Noteworthy
- U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, 2021
- U.S. Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense Global War on Terrorism Medal, 2020
- Frederick Douglas Human Rights Award, 2007 (Jointly)
- Campion Scholarship, 2004
- Order of the Coif, 2004
- Crowley Program in International Human Rights, Crowley Advocate Award, 2004
- Matteo Ricci Honor Society, 2003
- Goddard Riverside Community Center, Good Neighbor Award, 2003
- Fordham Law School, Conseils Award For Best Student Note, 2003
- Phi Sigma Tau Honors Society, 1998
Books
- The Light of Battle (HarperCollins 2024)
- Last Mission to Tokyo (Simon & Schuster 2020)
- Reimagining the National Security State (Oxford 2019) (Co-Author)
- National Security Law (Aba 2013) (Co-Author)
- Counter-Terrorism: International Law & Practice (Oxford 2012) (Co-Author)
- Speech in Parts: Understanding and Modelling the Semantic Differences Between Words (Oxford 2011) (DPhil Thesis)
Articles
- Regulations Targeting Large Language Models Warrant Strict Scrutiny Under the First Amendment, Lawfare (July 26, 2024)
- On D-Day, the U.S. Conquered the British Empire, The Atlantic (June 3, 2024)
- Nuremberg’s Regrettable Sibling: The Contradictions of the Tokyo Tribunal, Lawfare (April 1, 2024)
- Complicity in Torture in the ICC, Armed Groups and International Law (September 21, 2023)
- Airstrikes, Civilian Casualties, and the Role of JAGs in the Targeting Process, Lawfare (August 22, 2022)
- The Need for Urgency in Closing the War Crimes Act's Loopholes, Just Security (April 14, 2022)
- The Biden Administration Faces a Reckoning Decades in the Making, Lawfare (February 23, 2022)
- Judicial Disclosure & the Judicial Mystique, 49 Hofstra Law Review. 125 (2021)
- Federalism and Coronavirus Vaccination Mandates for Military Personnel, Lawfare (December 9, 2021)
- The Biden Administration Joins the Military Justice Reform Debate as It Heats Up in the Senate, Lawfare (July 27, 2021)
- Congress Demands Accountability for Service Members, Lawfare (June 1, 2021)
- The Impact of Military Justice Reform on Command Responsibility, Articles of War (June 1, 2021)
- Life Without a Sense of Smell, The Atlantic (February 13, 2021)
- In Defense of Unpopular Clients—and Liberty, The Wall Street Journal, (November 18, 2020)
- The Lost Cause's Long Legacy, The Atlantic (June 26, 2020)
- Is a Major Change to Military Justice in the Works?, Lawfare (May 4, 2020)
- Constitutionality of Religious & Alienage Discrimination in the Terrorism Context, 48 The Georgetown Journal of International Law. 951 (2018)
- Bombing for Show, The Weekly Standard (April 17, 2017)
- What’s Driving the Passion Behind JASTA?, Lawfare (October 3, 2016)
- The National Security Dimension of Birthright Citizenship, Lawfare (August 24, 2015)
- A Note on “A Note on the Use of Dictionaries”, 18 Green Bag 2D 65 (2014)
- Just Reasonable: Can Linguistic Analysis Help Us Know what it is to Be Reasonable? 47 Jurimetric 169 (2007).
Media Mentions
- 'Gold rush mentality': Lawyers pile into AI advice, Australian Financial Review (September 26, 2024)
- Unprepared for the Rising Nightmarish Risk of Biological Warfare, The Washington Post (September 18, 2024)
- AI is Ushering in a Tech Lawyer 'Golden Age', Business Insider (August 18, 2024)
- Believe It or Not, AI could Help Lawyers Bill More by the Hour, Business Insider (September 1, 2024)
- Morning Joe, CNBC (June 5, 2024)
- The Brutal Calculus of War, NPR (November 11, 2023)
Previous Employment
- Department of Defense, Office of Military Commissions (Washington, DC) (2007- 2025)
- Adjunct Professor. Taught International Law, National Security Law, And Jurisprudence, Georgetown University Law Center (Washington, DC) (2009 – 2021)
Professional Affiliations
- Center on National Security, Fellow
- National Institute of Military Justice, Board Member
- New York City Bar, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee
- Lawfare, Contributing Editor
- Caaflog, Law of Armed Conflict Editor
- Audio Arguendo, Editor-In-Chief
- American Historical Association
- American Society of International Law