Major Michael Mori USMC will receive the membership in recognition of exceptional service to justice and the rule of law in representing David Hicks while he was being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Mori was appointed by the United States Department of Defence to represent Hicks in November 2003, and continued to handle Hicks’ case until May this year. Mori defended his client not just in court, but also before the media in Australia and the USA.

Mori was one of the 2005 recipients of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Roger N Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award which was presented to the five military defence lawyers who represented the first round of Guantanamo Bay defendants and challenged the entire military commission system.

Since Hicks returned to Australia to serve out his sentence in May, Mori has been reassigned as a legal adviser to the commanders of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.