Paul Ney, JD/MBA ’84, has been nominated to become general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Ney’s nomination was announced by the White House Jan. 8 and is subject to Senate confirmation.
Ney has served as chief deputy attorney general in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office since September 2016. Before that, he was a partner in Patterson Intellectual Property Law in Nashville for six years.
He has extensive experience in government service, having previously served both as acting general counsel and principal deputy general counsel in the Department of the Navy and as deputy general for legal counsel in the Department of Defense. He received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. Ney also led Metropolitan Nashville’s Office of Economic and Community Development under Mayor Karl Dean ’81.
Ney earned his undergraduate degree at Cornell University before earning his J.D. and MBA at Vanderbilt. He was a judicial clerk to Judge Adrian Duplantier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana after law school.
