Thomas A. Russell was appointed General Counsel in September 2012. Prior to joining the Port of San Diego, he served for 10 years as General Counsel to the Port of Los Angeles, and prior to that worked in private practice. He is a member of the American Association of Port Authorities Law Review Committee, served as chair of the American Bar Association's Subcommittee on Maritime Financing and holds an "AV" peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell for achieving the highest standards of legal ethics and competence. Russell is a contributing author to the national legal treatises Benedict on Admiralty and Moore's Federal Practice. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from the University of Southern California's Law School. He clerked for Justice Robert Kingsley of the California Court of Appeals and received post-graduate training in dispute resolution at the Harvard Law School. Russell has been recognized for his work as General Counsel by the San Diego Business Journal and The Daily Transcript.