JAG DEFENSE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Representative Cases
- Senior Officer Cases
David Wagner is "Of Counsel" with JAG Defense. Mr. Wagner retired at the rank of Captain from the United States Navy in 2010 following 28 years of exemplary service in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Retiring as the senior Military Justice Litigation Expert in the Navy, Mr. Wagner capped his career as the Commanding Officer of the Navy's largest and busiest Naval Legal service Office, essentially the Chief Defense Counsel supervising the work of over 30 attorneys and almost 100 support staff in representing the interests of active duty personnel in both criminal law and civil law.
Prior to his selection for command, Mr. Wagner served seven years as a military judge, including four as a trial judge in the Navy's busiest judicial circuit, where he presided over hundreds of General and Special Courts-Martial. Judge Wagner's reputation as a skilled jurist resulted in his appointment as an appellate judge on the Navy Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, where he served just one year before being named a Senior Judge in charge of a three-judge panel. Judge Wagner's performance as an appellate judge then earned him appointment by the Judge Advocate General over several longer tenured judges on the Court as the Chief Judge of the Navy Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, where he supervised fourteen judges serving on five different appellate panels. During his tenure, Chief Judge Wagner was lauded as the most productive appellate judge on the court, authoring hundreds of opinions and participating in over 1,000 appellate cases.
In addition to his vast military justice experience as a judge, Mr. Wagner also served as a defense counsel and later as Chief Trial Counsel (prosecutor), where he built a reputation for aggressive, effective representation of his clients and a record of positive results in courts-martial. Mr. Wagner also brings a wealth of operational military experience, having served as legal advisor on several flag and general officer staffs, as legal officer and gunfire director on the battleship WISCONSIN (BB 64) during combat operations in Desert Storm, and as a Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General for Plans and Management.
Since retiring from the Navy, Mr. Wagner has served as a military exercise observer and trainer, teaching active duty attorneys from all Services the fundamentals of joint planning and operational law and assisting Staff Judge Advocates on staffs heading to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa in preparing for deployment. Mr. Wagner focuses his work with JAG Defense on courts-martial appeals, and assists the other JAG Defense attorneys with military justice issues.
Grover H. Baxley is the founding attorney of JAG Defense. As a former member of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps, Mr. Baxley now provides highly experienced representation for military members in all branches of service all over the world.
Job Titles:
- Counsel
- of Counsel
- Member of the Florida Bar
Jill Thomas has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, military defense counsel, and military judge. She has extensive experience in military justice, litigation and administrative processes.
Jill Thomas is "Of Counsel" with JAG Defense. She has a wealth of criminal trial experience with over 100 litigated trials and with over 25 years of JAG military service. While she was an active duty JAG, Ms. Thomas spent three years as an Area Defense Counsel defending clients in administrative (boards) proceedings and courts-martial. In that role, she litigated more than 40 criminal bench and jury trials, which included cases involving drug offenses, child pornography, theft, child sexual abuse, rape/sexual assault, and domestic violence. A formidable defense attorney, she zealously represented hundreds of military members around the world in matters ranging from minor administrative actions (reprimands, counselings, non-judicial punisments) to courts-martial. Ms. Thomas was ranked in the top 5% of Area Defense Counsels in the Air Force and #1 in the Western Circuit. As her supervisor commented, "ADCs don't come any better!" and "a World Class litigator."
After a highly successful career as a defense attorney, the Air Force assigned her to be a Circuit Trial Counsel for the next three years prosecuting the most complex and challenging cases worldwide. After she separated from active duty, Ms. Thomas joined the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor and spent 12 years investigating and prosecuting cases involving gangs, cartels (drug trafficking and firearms), child exploitation (sex trafficking, sextortion, sex tourism, and online exploitation), terrorism (domestic and international), corruption, fraud, and money laundering. With that vast criminal litigation experience, Ms. Thomas was competitively selected to become a reserve Military Judge where she served for a total of five years on the bench. She now serves as the Air Force's Director of TRIALS where she oversees the training of new JAGS in the area of trial advocacy.
Ms. Thomas brings the strategic advantage of a 360-degree view of the military justice system, having served as a defense counsel, prosecutor, and judge. Finely attuned to the dynamic trial process, she is considered by colleagues to be an unflappable, calm-in-a-storm litigator. She takes a client-centered and careful approach, walking clients through each stage of the process.
Ms. Thomas is an active member of the Florida Bar. She is also licensed to practice before the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and military courts worldwide.
Ms. Thomas grew up in Shelby Township, Michigan. She graduated from Carthage College with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and History and earned her Juris Doctorate from Stetson University College of Law. In her spare time, Ms. Thomas enjoys ping pong, golfing, March Madness, hiking, reading, traveling, and learning languages.
Justyn Ann Baxley is a Partner with JAG Defense. Her practice primarily focuses on security clearance law and administrative law. As a security clearance lawyer, Ms. Baxley has represented hundreds of individuals in security clearance adjudications across virtually every federal agency, to include the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, the National Security Agency, NASA, and others. Her successes in retaining or obtaining security clearances for her clients has included cases involving every Adjudicative Guideline (A-M). Ms. Baxley provides comprehensive, compelling, and compassionate representation for her clients facing security clearance issues.
Prior to joining JAG Defense, Ms. Baxley worked as a program manager of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funded projects for an international law firm. From 2003 to 2005, she worked as a government relations attorney with the Boston Bar Association, advocating bar positions before legislative, executive and judicial branches of the Massachusetts government.
Ms. Baxley is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 1998, she graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. In 2002, Ms. Baxley received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Richmond School of Law, where she served as a senior staff member of The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology and taught as an assistant in the Lawyering Skills I and II classes. In her spare time, Ms. Baxley enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters, playing tennis, and spending as much time at the beach as she can.
Education:
B.A., University of Virginia, 1998
J.D., University of Richmond School of Law, 2002
Michael (Mike) Hanzel is "Of Counsel" with JAG Defense. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Hanzel graduated from the University of Virginia in 1999 and the top-10 ranked University of Virginia School of Law in 2005. In between college and law school, he served as a legislative assistant to a member of the British House of Commons, drafting legislation that modernized the United Kingdom's child sex offender laws and gaining valuable experience in the political side of the lawmaking process as well as criminal law. He then spent two years as a journalist, working at The Associated Press, as a sportswriter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and as a columnist for ESPN, while contributing to numerous other websites and publications.
In 2005, Mr. Hanzel was commissioned in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps, which he served in for 12 years. He focused on criminal defense litigation and was selected by the Navy as a Specialist in its Military Justice Litigation Qualification Career Track. As an O-3 (Lieutenant), he served as a defense counsel and Branch Head in Charleston, South Carolina, before becoming the Navy's sole prosecutor in the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility. Based in Bahrain, he traveled numerous times in and out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Dubai to investigate, prosecute and help commands. After 15 months in the Arabian Gulf, he was given orders to a prestigious clerkship at the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals before joining the Navy's Appellate Defense Division. While there, his defense of a Marine lance corporal who had been prosecuted for attempting suicide while suffering from PTSD, which he took all the way to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and won, garnered international attention and resulted in the Department of Defense publicly announcing a review of its policy on military suicide attempts. Still an O-3, he was then hand-selected to take an O-4 department head job in the Northwest, where he was placed in charge of all of the Navy's Pacific Northwest defense attorneys. He was promoted to lieutenant commander (O-4) while in Bremerton, Washington, and then followed that by accepting orders to Norfolk, Virginia, at the Navy's largest and busiest criminal defense litigation office. There, he was promoted to Senior Defense Counsel and represented Coastguardsmen, Marines, and Sailors accused of crimes or being involuntarily separated from the military. Stationed for three years in Norfolk, he amassed an impressive personal record of acquittals and legal victories while leading Navy defense counsel in the region to remarkable levels of innovative practice and success in support of individual clients against the Government.
On 30 September 2017, he left active duty as one of the Navy's most experienced litigators to represent clients in private practice. Based out of Charleston, South Carolina, but able to practice worldwide for military clients, his practice focuses on military law, criminal law and appeals. Mr. Hanzel is licensed in Virginia and South Carolina, is a member of the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, and he is certified for military cases under Article 27(b) and sworn under Article 42(a) of the UCMJ.
Tory J. Langemo is "Of Counsel" with JAG Defense. Mr. Langemo is a highly respected trial attorney who is dedicated to client service. Before entering private practice, Mr. Langemo served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG). He brings the strength, training and dedication instilled in him by the military into the courtroom for clients around the world. He specializes his practice with JAG Defense on military justice litigation and administrative actions.
Mr. Langemo has litigated many jury trials and administrative proceedings to verdict and resolved numerous others short of litigation. He has also helped clients obtain the dismissal of charges and acquittals at the trial stage. Mr. Langemo has represented clients all over the United States and around the world, to include Germany, England, Turkey, Japan, and Korea.
Mr. Langemo began his legal career as an intern in the Grand Forks County State's Attorney's Office. While in law school, Mr. Langemo began prosecuting cases and learned the inter workings of a prosecutor's office. After graduating from law school, Mr. Langemo was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corp (JAG). In the Judge Advocate General's Corps, he first served as Chief of Contract Law and Legal Assistance Attorney then the Chief of Adverse Actions at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina. As a Legal Assistance Attorney, he worked as a general practitioner in areas such as contract disputes, estate planning and family law.
After two years, Mr. Langemo was selected to become the sole provider of defense services to a base population exceeding 5,000 military personnel. He represented Airmen at administrative proceedings and courts-martial. Mr. Langemo regularly appeared in military courts litigating in defense of his clients. He traveled up and down the East Coast taking cases at other Air Force installations as well.