Lanny J. Acosta Jr.

Mr. Acosta earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1995 from Mississippi State University and a Juris Doctor in 1998 from the University of Mississippi. He earned an LLM from the Judge Advocate General’s School in 2006, and served as an active-duty judge advocate in the U.S. Army for twenty-five years, before retiring at the rank of Colonel in 2023.  Mr. Acosta served in various leadership and litigation roles while in the Army, including Deputy Staff Judge Advocate (General Counsel) for U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg and Chief Prosecutor at I Corps and Joint Base Lewis-McChord. While on active duty, he also served as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney is the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. In that role, he represented the interests of the Army and other service branches in civil matters before the U.S. District Court for D.C. and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  Mr. Acosta's last eight years on active duty were as a Military Judge where he presided over approximately three hundred criminal trials, including a capital case.  He served as a Circuit Judge, twice as Chief Circuit Judge, Deputy Chief Trial Judge, and Chief Judge of the Military Commissions.

Following his time on active duty, Mr. Acosta served as Clerk of Court for the U.S. Air Force Trial Judiciary and later as a staff attorney for the Defense Advisory Committee on the Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault in 2024. 

• Legion of Merit 
• Bronze Star
• Certificate in Capital Litigation