CDR Chris Czaplak, USN (Ret.)
Chris graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2000 with a B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Russian. After completing Navy Nuclear Power Propulsion Training, Chris served on the USS OLYMPIA (SSN 717) in Pearl Harbor, HI, where he completed her 2003 Western Pacific deployment. He then earned his law degree through the Navy’s Law Education Program at American University, Washington College of Law.
As a JAG, Chris served multiple tours as a defense counsel, trying some of the Navy’s most complex and highest visibility cases all over the world. He defended Sailors and Marines accused of murder, espionage, sexual assault, and complex computer crimes. He served two tours as a Senior Defense Counsel and was the Executive Officer of Defense Service Office Southeast, the Navy’s largest and busiest trial defense office.
Chris was selected for the Navy’s Military Justice Litigation Career Track in 2011, and was designate a Military Justice Expert, the JAG Corps’ highest certification, in 2020. Chris is certified to practice before Courts-Martial across the services, and admitted to practice in the states of New York, California, and in the Federal District Court of the Southern District of California.
