Jack L. Rives

Rives grew up in Rockmart, Georgia, where his family were the only Jews in a town of 4,000. "We would go to [synagogue for] the High Holy Days... and there was curiosity among my classmates, curiosity about why I was getting out of school to go to Yom Kippur services or Rosh Hashanah." He either attended or taught Sunday school every week from the time he was 5 years old until high school.[3]

He notes that his father was in the National Guard for a short time, but otherwise his family had no formal military "heritage."[4]

Rives received an A.B. degree in political science from the University of Georgia in 1974 and a J.D. degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1976. He was a member of the Kappa Deuteron chapter of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He has also been educated at the Air Command and Staff College (1983), Air War College (1990), and National War College (1993).

Lt. Gen. Jack L. Rives and Lt. Gen. Scott C. Black perform the ribbon cutting at the Pentagon Army Air Force Legal Assistance Office, Feb 25, 2009.

Lt. Gen. Rives pins the Meritorious Service Medal on Col. Lindsey Graham (United States Senator, South Carolina), April 2009.

Rives received his commission through the Air Force ROTC program in 1974 and entered active duty in 1977 after receiving his J.D. degree as assistant staff judge advocate at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York. Between 1978 and 1983, he was stationed at Kunsan Air Base, Hellenikon Air Base, and Clark Air Base as a judge advocate and defense counsel. It was during his assignment at Hellenikon that he met Marie, the woman who would become his wife.[4]

Rives worked in the Office of the Judge Advocate Generate between 1986 and 1990, was an appellate judge at the U.S. Air Force Court of Military Review between 1990 and 1992, and was the deputy legal counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff between 1993 and 1995. While in his assignment at JCS, he worked for Colin Powell and John Shalikashvili.[4]

Rives was commandant of the Air Force Judge Advocate General School between 1995 and 1998 before returning to Washington to serve as the chief of the Air Force Executive Issues Team and staff judge advocate from 1998 to 2002.

Rives became Deputy Judge Advocate General (DJAG) and was promoted to major general in 2002. In September 2004, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Fiscus was relieved of his duties as The Judge Advocate General (TJAG) in response to an investigation into his relationships with female subordinates, and Rives was named acting TJAG.[5][6] There was a period of over a year when the Air Force operated without an official TJAG, during which Rives continued to sign his name as DJAG, adding when necessary, "PDOT": "Performing the duties of TJAG."[4]

In 2006, he was named TJAG of the Air Force. In that position, he served as the legal adviser to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, directed 2,200 judge advocates, 350 attorneys, 1,400 enlisted paralegals, and 500 civilians. The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act requires that The Judge Advocate General and Surgeon General of the Air Force and Army must each hold the rank of lieutenant general.[7] As a result, Rives became the first Judge Advocate General in any service to serve in the grade of lieutenant general.[2]

As deputy judge advocate general, Rives criticized Justice Department memos that authorized the President to conduct enhanced interrogation techniques as "violations of domestic criminal law" and could potentially place interrogators and the military chain of command at risk of international criminal accusations.[8][9] In 2006 during a hearing on the Military Commissions Act, Rives and other senior military lawyers advised Congress to grant detainees broader legal protections, such as granting defendants access to classified evidence, than the rules proposed by the Bush administration.[10][11]

On April 22, 2010, Rives was named the executive director and chief operating officer of the American Bar Association.[12][13] He officially began to work in his new position on May 1, the day recognized as "Law Day" by the ABA and many other legal organizations.[14]

He replaced Henry White Jr. who resigned in 2009 with other senior staff members following a reorganization set in motion by ABA president Carolyn Lamm.[15][16] American Bar Association Executive Director Rives departed from the ABA in March 2023. He was succeeded by Alpha M. Brady as Executive Director, making her the first person of color to lead the ABA.[17]

• U.S. Air Force biography at archive.today (archived 2012-12-12)
• Wall Street Journal interview