Valerie E. Caproni, general counsel of the FBI, will highlight the inaugural Susette M. Talarico Lecture at UGA. Caproni’s lecture, “Current Challenges for the FBI—View from the General Counsel,” will be given in the Chapel at 3:30 p.m. on April 16. The lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs’ department of political science and the criminal justice studies program.
Caproni, a native of Georgia and a 1979 graduate of the UGA School of Law, took the job of general counsel of the FBI in 2003. Since that time, she has played a leading role in developing the bureau’s new guidelines and rules for domestic operations. The new guidelines, which took effect in October 2008, reflect the FBI’s continued transformation from the nation’s pre-eminent law enforcement agency to a domestic intelligence agency with a national security mission and law enforcement mission.
Caproni’s responsibilities include helping agents understand the legal parameters within which they can identify, investigate and detain suspected terrorists.
“As general counsel at the FBI, Ms. Caproni has exercised extraordinary leadership in developing policies that achieve a balance between protecting U.S. citizens from terrorism, while preserving constitutional rights to privacy and civil liberties,” said Elaine Weeks, director of the criminal justice studies program.
The Talarico lecture honors the longtime UGA faculty member who died in 2007 following a 17-year battle with breast cancer. A faculty member for more than three decades, Talarico was known for her innovative approach to teaching and mentoring.
“Ms. Caproni is in many ways the ideal inaugural Talarico lecturer,” said Weeks. “Her stellar legal career in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she zealously prosecuted organized crime cases, as well as her leadership at the FBI, reflect the ideals that Susette promoted to students during her
30 years of teaching legal and judicial studies at UGA.”
