On March 11, GW Law students heard from Eric O'Neill, JD '03, a former FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative who helped catch notorious Russian spy Robert Hanssen while Mr. O'Neill was a GW Law evening student.
Mr. O'Neill shared insights with students about his time at the FBI, as well as his subsequent legal and cybersecurity career as a Senior Associate in the Government Contracts Group at DLA Piper U.S. LLP; as General Counsel of Global Communities, a global humanitarian relief nonprofit organization; and as co-founder of two companies, the Georgetown Group and the Schiltron Group.
Dan Richard, Professional Lecturer in Law who teaches Intelligence Law at GW Law, led the discussion, which focused on Mr. O'Neill's involvement in the Hanssen investigation, what it was like being the subject of a major Hollywood production (the 2007 film "Breach" tells Mr. O'Neill's story), and the realities of intelligence work in the field.
Students learned that Mr. Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history, having sold secrets to Russia for more than 22 years while he was an FBI special agent. Mr. O'Neill, a young operative who usually worked to "ghost" (or follow) spies in Washington, D.C., was tasked to connect with and learn about Mr. Hanssen while serving as his direct subordinate at the FBI's newly established Information Assurance Section.
Under intense time pressure, Mr. O'Neill obtained Mr. Hanssen's personal digital assistant (a formerly common handheld mobile electronic device used for storing calendars, contact information, and other data), delivered it to technical staff to copy and decrypt its contents, and returned it to Mr. Hanssen's bag before he returned to his office. The information obtained from Mr. Hanssen's device led the FBI to Mr. Hanssen's final "drop" for the Russians, which connected Mr. Hanssen to more than 20 years of spying and resulted in his subsequent arrest, trial, conviction, and sentence to life imprisonment.
Mr. O'Neill's book about his experience, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, was published in spring 2019.
When asked how his time at the FBI prepared him for a career in the private sector, Mr. O'Neill joked that he was able to handle the tough partners at his law firm because he already had "the worst boss he was ever going to have" in Mr. Hanssen. Mr. O'Neill also discussed the mutually beneficial relationship between his intelligence and legal training, explaining that his intelligence training taught him how to observe and remember key factual details, while his legal training at GW Law taught him to argue effectively and analyze information. Mr. O'Neill advised students to choose meaningful careers, reflecting on his first job in the government at the Department of Justice Foreign Claims Settlement Commission before he started at the FBI.
The event was sponsored by the National Security Law Program, the National Security Law Association, and the Military Law Society. Mr. O'Neill's visit was one of many opportunities for GW Law students, who have had similar discussions in recent years with Doug Letter, House of Representatives General Counsel; John Rizzo, former Acting CIA General Counsel; and Andrew Knaggs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism.