Carlissa Carson serves as an associate professor at Cumberland School of Law. Before joining Cumberland, Carson practiced law for more than ten years and appeared before magistrate, probate, state, and federal courts. Most recently, Carson managed Emory Law’s Volunteer Clinic for Veterans and taught at Emory Law as an adjunct professor. She began her legal career as a litigation associate at Freeman Mathis & Gary in Atlanta, Georgia. She later served as district counsel for the U.S. Small Business Administration where she represented SBA’s interests in civil litigation and collection matters.

In addition to her role at Cumberland, Carson is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. As Staff Judge Advocate at an airlift wing, she serves as the principal legal counsel to the wing commander, leadership team, and subordinate units, while also managing legal support services for base personnel. She advises on administrative law, non-judicial punishment, discharge actions, international law, etc. Carson previously served as Staff Judge Advocate in the Air National Guard for an air refueling wing. Before joining the Air Force, Carson completed Army ROTC at Georgia Institute of Technology and served as a military intelligence officer and as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Carson graduated from Emory Law (JD) where she wrote for the Emory Law Journal and participated in the International Humanitarian Law Clinic (IHLC). Her work with the IHLC involved her traveling to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where she worked on the Salim Hamdan case by drafting motions on issues of documentary evidence admission, access to detained witnesses, and the Military Commissions Act. Hamdan was Osama bin Laden’s personal bodyguard and driver, and his military commission in Guantanamo Bay was the first of its kind in the modern era. Carson also graduated, with distinction, from Georgetown Law (LLM, concentration in international law and human rights). At Georgetown Law, Carson wrote for the Journal of Law and Public Policy and served as a teaching fellow.

Honors

• Lightfoot Scholarship Award, Cumberland School of Law, 2026
• Marshall-Tuttle Award, State Bar of Georgia, 2023
• Meritorious Service Medal, U.S. Air Force, 2022
• Young Alumni Award, Emory Law, 2021
• Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, U.S. Air Force, 2020
• Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal, U.S. Air Force, 2013  
• Top 99 Under 33 Foreign Policy Leader, Diplomatic Courier, 2012
• Army Commendation Medal, U.S. Army, 2011
• Atlanta’s Power 30 Under 30, Apex Society, 2010

Publications 

• The White Hat Hacker’s Approach: A Vulnerability Analysis of U.S. Cyber Laws, 87 Mont. L. Rev. 329 (2026).
• Restoring the Balance of War Powers: A Call to Repeal and Replace the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, 62 San Diego L. Rev. 89 (2025).
• Conflicting Canons of Construction: The Aftermath in Veterans’ Law, 90 Brook. L. Rev. 781 (2025) .
• Scrap McDonnell Douglas and its Burden-Shifting!, 101 Neb. L. Rev. 393 (2023).
• Welcome to the Burn Pit: Where the Black Goo Oozes and the Green Ponds Glow, 82 La. L. Rev. 677 (2022).
        - quoted above-the-line in Petitioner’s successful Writ of Certiorari before the United States Supreme Court (Bufkin v. Collins, 604 U.S. 369 (2025))
• Yes We Can Revise the Military Commissions System, but Why?, 25 Conn. J. Int’l L. 389 (July 2010).
• The Military Commissions Act of 2006: How its Inability to Curb Abusive Interrogations Threatens the Future Treatment of Detainees and the United States’ Reputation, 57 Emory L.J. 695 (June 2008).