Court Martial Defender

Biography

Greg Pavlik
Greg Pavlik was born in Weimar, Texas and grew up in small Texas towns.  After graduating from high school  in Snyder, Texas, he went to the Air Force Academy on a football scholarship.  When intercollegiate football didn’t work out, he switched to the speech team  where he won many awards and honors in various speech and debate competitions.  This fueled his desire to attend law school and practice as a trial lawyer.
His senior year at the Air Force Academy, he marched in Ronald Reagan’s 1981 inaugural parade, edited the Academy Assembly conference paper, captained his squadron’s 8 man wing championship football team, chaired the Air Force Academy Distinguished Speaker’s Program, and graduated in the top 15% of his class academically and militarily.  He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and went to Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico as an operational intelligence officer.

Shortly after arriving at Cannon Air Force Base, he became the chief intelligence officer of the 523^rd Tactical Fighter Squadron.  While at Cannon, he helped the wing receive Excellent ratings in operational inspections and deployed overseas for intelligence exercises.  In 1983, in his first opportunity, Greg was selected for the Funded Legal Education Program, where the Air Force sent him to the University of Texas Law School.

While in law school, Greg continued to excel both academically and in competitive moot court competitions.  He also prepared himself for his career as an Air Force Judge Advocate by interning in Washington D. C. in the summer of 1984 in the Headquarters Tort Division of the Air Force.  That summer, he was the lead Air Force intern in the cataloging of “Agent Orange” documents when the Department of Defense was required to defend itself by the United States District Court Judge.  In the summer of 1985, Greg worked in the Bergstrom Air Force Base legal office as the chief of administrative discharges.  He also represented the base in labor law, environmental law, and utilities litigation with the City of Austin.  During his 3^rd year in law school, Greg continued to work out at Bergstrom 10-20 hours per week.

Following graduation from law school with honors, Greg passed the Texas Bar Exam and attended the Air Force initial training where he was an Outstanding Graduate.  He then was assigned to Minot Air Force Base as an attorney in September 1986.  While in the legal office, he honed his skills in administrative discharges and courts-martial.  In March 1987, Greg went to Squadron Officer’s School in Montgomery. Alabama.  There he was the only Distinguished Graduate in his section which happened to win the Outstanding Section (Chief of Staff Section) in that class of Squadron Officers School.  At the same time, he was notified that upon his return to Minot Air Force Base, he would be assigned as the Area Defense Counsel. 

Because the previous Defense Counsel was leaving for reassignment, Greg assumed the duties of Area Defense Counsel immediately upon his return in May 1987.  During his time at Minot, he had great success in and out of the courtroom.  Of the 10 administrative discharge proceedings, 5 resulted in retentions.  He had 4 acquittals in courts-martial including an acquittal in a trial involving rape and kidnapping charges and an acquittal in an AWOL case.  Perhaps even more significant were the courts-martial in which there were guilty pleas, but no confinement or punitive discharges.  There were also several cases in which he convinced the legal office to withdraw court-martial charges without trial following pre-trial investigation.  Finally, Greg made several presentations to base-wide audiences on military justice as the legal representative.

Following his assignment to Minot, Greg was selected as a Circuit Trial Counsel for the Air Force stationed in Montgomery, Alabama at Maxwell Air Force Base.  From December 1988-June 1991, Greg tried over 100 courts-martial and other administrative hearings in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Panama, and Puerto Rico.  The cases tried ranged from murder to sex abuse to drugs and included the only Air Force officer tried from the first Gulf War.  He also trained literally hundreds of young Air Force attorneys in trial advocacy at conferences and at the Judge Advocate School in Montgomery, Alabama.  He interviewed and examined and cross-examined countless experts from fields including all types of medical experts, accident reconstructionists, laboratory and toxicology experts, and many child abuse and mental health experts. 

Although asked to be on the faculty at the Air Force Judge Advocate School, Greg chose to return to his alma mater at the Air Force Academy.  In June 1991, he and his family moved back to Colorado Springs where he began his assignment as a law instructor.  While at USAFA, he taught the basic survey of the law course as well as Air and Space Law and Constitutional Law.  Additionally, he served as an Associate Air Officer Commanding for 30^th Squadron, his cadet squadron, and served as the Officer Representative for the Men’s Intercollegiate Soccer Team.  Greg was also the pre-trial confinement magistrate for the base and presided over several hearings.  Finally, he continued his role in teaching advocacy both as the coach of the Intercollegiate Mock Trial Team and as an adjunct instructor of Trial Advocacy at the Judge Advocate School in Montgomery, Alabama. 

In June 1994, Greg became the Chief Circuit Trial Counsel for the western one-third of the United States.  As chief prosecutor for over 20 Air Force Bases, Greg was responsible for providing advice and litigation support to commanders and senior Air Force lawyers.  Most notably, he was the prosecutor for the litigation involving the 1994 B-52 crash at Fairchild Air Force Base.  The litigation involved issues never before addressed in Air Force litigation and he successfully navigated these issues.  As a result he was tabbed by the then Judge Advocate General of the Air Force as “one of the best trial lawyers in the Air Force---ever.”  He was also involved in numerous sexual harassment/fraternization cases, the most serious sexual and physical child abuse cases, murder, and countless drug cases involving various levels of expertise.  He continued his advocacy training both in conferences he hosted and at the Judge Advocate General’s school training hundreds of young lawyers. 

Greg’s final assignment in the Air Force was as a Military Judge between 1997 and 2003 stationed out of Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  He presided over hundreds of military court-martials and administrative proceedings in the central one-third of the United States.  Again, these cases involved the entire gamut of military criminal litigation.  While serving as a military judge, he continued to train young lawyers at the Judge Advocate School and in post-trial mentoring sessions.  He also served as Investigating Officer in several senior officer cases.

Since retiring in November 2003, Mr. Pavlik has worked in both civil and military litigation.  He has represented pilots in Flying Evaluation Boards, officers and enlisted personnel in medical Physical Evaluation Boards, and military members in courts-martial and administrative proceedings.  He has also provided advice to many military attorneys who called him to discuss trial strategy and tactics.