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MARCI SAM
Maryland National Guard
Col. Marci J. Sam serves as the State Staff Judge Advocate for the Maryland National Guard, where she is the senior legal advisor to the adjutant general of Maryland and provides legal counsel across Army, Air and Joint Force Headquarters. She leads a joint team of legal professionals advising on military justice, domestic operations, ethics, contracts and fiscal law, and administrative law.
Sam brings more than 25 years of experience as a military attorney and leader. Her career has taken her to missions in Iraq, Kosovo, Germany and Korea, and her assignments have included advising commanders and senior leaders on complex legal and operational matters spanning domestic response missions, national security operations and military justice. She also served as the first military judge for the Maryland National Guard. Coordinating across multiple stakeholders, including state policymakers, military leaders and legal experts, she helped develop and advance legislation that ultimately modernized the Maryland Code of Military Justice, updating a structure that dated back to the 1950s and no longer fully reflected modern standards of due process or the evolving needs of the National Guard.
Her path to law was shaped early by her father, an attorney, whose advice stayed with her. “The legal profession allows you to pursue many different paths while remaining grounded in the same core principles of rationality, service, and integrity,” she said. When she became interested in being an Army officer, the Judge Advocate General’s Corps offered a way to combine her passion for law with her desire to serve her country.
— building a career that blended law, leadership and service while allowing her to build and raise her family.
Looking ahead, Sam is particularly focused on the evolving role of artificial intelligence and emerging defense technologies in government, national security and everyday decision-making. She hopes to contribute to conversations and policy development surrounding how the law can responsibly guide the use of AI while ensuring transparency, accountability and protection of individual rights while defending our nation.
Sam is a graduate of La Salle University and holds a juris doctorate from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. She also holds a master’s in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. Outside of her professional responsibilities, she speaks with students, young professionals, aspiring JAGs and members of her community about careers in law or public service. As State Staff Judge Advocate for the Maryland National Guard, she has had the honor of growing the newest legal professionals in the state who will go on to serve Maryland and its communities throughout their careers. She grew up on Cape Cod.
