Jefferson's Pen

Arthur Rizer is an Associate Professor of Law at College of Law, West Virginia University (WVU). Before joining the faculty at WVU Law, Rizer worked at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for nine years as a trial attorney. His most recent assignment at DOJ was as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division working on narcotics and national security cases, primarily focused on international drug cartels and narco-terrorists. His other postings at DOJ included national security litigator with Federal Program's Guantanamo Bay Litigation Team; prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern Districtof California; and civil litigator with the Office of Immigration Litigation. Rizer started his legal career as a federal judicial law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He has also taught at Georgetown University Law Center as an Adjunct Professor of Law and currently holds an appointment as a Visiting Professor of Law. Before law school, Rizer served as a Military Police and Armor officer in the reserve and active U.S. Army. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the West Virginia National Guard. In the military, Rizer was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, where he helped train the Iraqi Army to fight the insurgency and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals. Also before law school, Rizer worked as a civilian police officer in Washington State. Rizer earned LLM, with distinction, from Law Center, Georgetown University and his JD, magna cum laude, from School of Law, Gonzaga University. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps' Command Staff College. He is currently a D.Phil candidate in Criminology at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law.