Dr. Al-Arian's Attorneys
Dr. Al-Arian's Lawyers in Virginia (2007-current)
JONATHAN TURLEY, Washington, DC
Professor Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written
extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law.
He has written over three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety
of leading law journals at Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, and
other schools.
Professor Turley joined the George Washington faculty in 1990 and, in 1998, was
given the prestigious Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, the youngest chaired
professor in the school’s history. In addition to his extensive publications, Professor Turley has served
as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades.
Professor Turley has also served as counsel in a variety of national security cases.
Professor Turley is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory
issues. Professor Turley is also a nationally recognized legal commentator. Professor Turley was ranked
as 38th in the top 100 most cited “public intellectuals”. Turley was also found to be the second most
cited law professor in the country. He has been repeatedly ranked in the nation’s top 500 lawyers in
annual surveys - one of onlya handful of academics. In prior years, he was ranked as one of the nation’s
top ten lawyers in military law cases as well as one of the top 40 lawyers under 40.
Professor Turley’s articles on legal and policy issues appear regularly in national publications with
over 500 articles in such newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles
Times and Wall Street Journal. He is on the Board of Contributors of USA Today. In 2005, Turley was given the
Columnist of the Year award for Single-Issue Advocacy for his columns on civil liberties by the Aspen Institute and
the Week Magazine. Professor Turley also appears regularly as a legal expert on all of the major television networks.
Since the 1990s, he has worked under contract as the on-air Legal Analyst for NBC News and CBS News.
Professor Turley is often a guest on Sunday talk shows with over two-dozen appearances on Meet the Press, ABC This Week,
Face the Nation, and Fox Sunday.
Professor Turley teaches courses on constitutional lawas well as constitutional criminal law.
Professor Turley received his B.A. at the University of Chicago and his J.D. at Northwestern.
(In 2008, he was given an honorary Doctorate of Law from John Marshall Law School for
his contributions to civil liberties and the public interest).
William E. Olson of Bryan Cave, Washington, DC
William Olson’s practice includes representing individuals in
criminal matters pending before federal courts and counseling
corporations and individuals on regulatory and criminal law matters.
Philip J. Meitl of Bryan Cave, Washington, DC
Philip (PJ) Meitl's practice focuses on matters involving government and internal investigations,
securities enforcement and civil litigation. Mr. Meitl has assisted in the defense of domestic and
international clients under criminal investigation by federal law enforcement agencies, and has
been involved in trial litigation in numerous jurisdictions.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Meitl interned in the fraud and public corruption unit of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, working on a variety of white-collar criminal matters.
During law school, he served as editor-in-chief of the American Criminal Law Review,known for its
"Annual Survey on White-Collar Crime".
Dr. Al-Arian appeals' Lawyers before the 11th circuit (2006-2008)
C. Peter Erlinder, St. Paul, MN
William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN, professor of law since 1982.
Professor Erlinder is a frequent litigator or consultant, often pro bono, in cases
involving the death penalty, civil rights, claims of government and police misconduct,
and criminal defense of political activists. He is also a frequent news commentator.
National president, National Lawyers Guild, 1993–97. Founding board member, National
Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, Washington, DC. Member, National Conference of
Bill of Rights Defense Committees Steering Committee, Washington, DC.
Jack E. Fernandez, Jr. of Zuckerman-Spaeder, Tampa, FL
With experience placing him in the center of many of the most high-profile
issues of our day, Jack E. Fernandez Jr. concentrates his practice on state and federal
False Claims Act, criminal, and white collar litigation. His clients range from Fortune
500 companies to healthcare providers to a Middle Eastern country to individual corporate executives.
Before entering private practice, Mr. Fernandez served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the
Middle District of Florida, where he investigated, tried, and argued appeals in numerous
complex federal cases, including defense contractor fraud, healthcare fraud, tax and securities fraud,
satellite signal piracy, and intellectual property cases. He was one of the founding members of the
U.S. Attorney’s Health Care Fraud Task Force for the Middle District of Florida.
Dr. Al-Arian Lawyers for the Florida case (2003-2006)
William B. Moffitt , Washington, DC
On Oct. 29, 2003, Al-Arian hired Washington, D.C., attorney William B.Moffitt.
Bill Moffitt is a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,
and has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America publication on
numerous occasions. Moffitt has also been featured as a legal expert on a number
of television networks.
A local Florida newspaper reported in 2004 that Bill Moffitt "dedicated his professional life to
holding the U.S. government to the principles it espouses to the rest of the world. Moffitt is
passionate in his defense of Al-Arian, having long spoken out on issues of race and political freedom."
"I've always felt that in times of crises, we sometimes pick out people to be made the devils," Moffitt told the paper.
He also described the Al-Arian case as the first "civil rights case of the 21st century."
Linda Moreno Tampa, FL
Linda Moreno was Dr. Al-Arian's local attorney. She has been a criminal defense attorney
for the past 28 years. She is known as a passionate and experienced criminal defense lawyer
defending political cases including Palestinians and Native Americans.
March 2000
December 2005