Virginia attorney John Norton Moore and the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP serve as co-counsel to the Gulf War POWs and their families.
John Norton Moore is a former U.S. Ambassador, National Security Council official, and Counselor on International Law to the U.S. Department of State. He is a well known international lawyer, who has also served as a Deputy Agent for the United States in the Nicaragua case before the International Court of Justice, and was a member of the U.S. legal team in the Gulf of Maine case before the International Court of Justice.
In 2001, one of the POWs began discussions with Mr. Moore about going forward with the suit. Mr. Moore reached out to Steptoe & Johnson to serve as co-counsel for the POWs and their family members.
Steptoe & Johnson has more than 350 attorneys and has offices in Washington, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Brussels. It provides counsel and representation in a wide range of legal fields. In more than 50 years of practice, the firm has gained a national and international reputation for vigorous representation of clients in court and before governmental agencies. A team of attorneys from Steptoe has worked on the case for the past three years. Among those who have been involved from the outset are Steve Fennell, Molly Poag, David Smyth, and Tony Onorato, who collectively have decades of experience in complex litigation matters. The team has grown to include several additional attorneys and staff, including appellate experts who were brought in to address the Justice Department’s challenges to the POWs’ case. For more information on Steptoe & Johnson, visit www.steptoe.com
The attorneys in this case have devoted a substantial amount of time to this cause since 2001, committed to the core goals of holding Saddam Hussein and Iraq accountable for the torture of the POWs and deterring the torture of POWs in the future. They will continue the battle to maintain this important public record on the books and to obtain satisfaction of the judgment awarded by the court to the POWs.