DOJ invites Professor Bolitho to teach in Republic of Georgia

RALEIGH, N.C. – Campbell Law Assistant Professor Zac Bolitho has been invited by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) to teach a variety of topics to judges and lawyers in the Republic of Georgia, June 19-25. While there, he will present to the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Opinion Drafting Working Group. Bolitho will also deliver several presentations to Georgian prosecutors on topics including legal reasoning, statutory interpretation, and written advocacy.

The OPDAT program was created by the DOJ in response to the growing threat of international crime. OPDAT’s mission is to assist other countries in the development and maintenance of effective criminal justice institutions.

Steven S. Neff, the DOJ’s Resident Legal Advisor in the Republic of Georgia, explained that Georgia “is actively pursuing Euro-Atlantic integration as part of its long term national strategy, and a big piece of that strategy relates to the Westernization of its criminal justice system and the codification and preservation of due process rights as it moves from an inquisitorial to an adversarial model of justice.“ Neff further explained that through the OPDAT program, the DOJ “routinely deploys its own Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs) to nations like Georgia for a period of time as Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) to assist in the development of the rule of law. Combining the personal expertise of the AUSAs/RLAs with their access to other resources, they will often invite other experts such as Bolitho to help in these processes and trainings.“

Neff expressed excitement about Bolitho’s upcoming visit, stating that his “experiences as a federal law clerk and federal prosecutor working with and before federal judges give him the kind of expertise that will be most beneficial to Georgian judges and prosecutors. Moreover, the combination of his teaching, appellate writing, and courtroom trial skills gives him a unique blend of talents and perspectives that will enable rule of law actors in Georgia to receive the most comprehensive information about the best practices in a Western-style adversarial criminal justice system.“

Prior to joining Campbell Law, Bolitho was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he handled a wide variety of cases ranging from violent crime to sophisticated white collar crime. He also previously served as a law clerk to Judge David W. McKeague of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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