Ryan Coward

Military Court Martial Attorney

Mr. Coward was born in Denver, Colorado and attended DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. While at DePaul, Mr. Coward participated in the Army R.O.T.C. earning his commission as a Army Officer upon graduation in 2004. Mr. Coward attended The University of Illinois at Chicago, John Marshall Law School, and received his law degree in 2007. While at UIC, Mr. Coward served as the Executive Lead Articles Editor for the Review of Intellectual Property Law.
At University of Illinois at Chicago, John Marshall Law School, Mr. Coward co-founded one of the nation’s leading law school clinics dedicated to veterans advocacy. The clinic now handles over 500 veterans benefits cases and employs five full-time attorneys. Mr. Coward sits on the clinic’s Board of Advisors.

Upon graduation, Mr. Coward entered the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps where he developed a reputation as one of the Army’s best litigators. In 2008, he served as a Federal Trial Counsel at Camp Casey, South Korea. As a Trial Counsel in Korea Mr. Coward successfully litigated cases at Camp Casey, Yongsan, Camp Humphreys, Camp Red Cloud and Osan Air Base.

In 2009, Mr. Coward was assigned to Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he served as a Federal Trial Counsel, Senior Trial Counsel, and Chief of Military Justice for U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Army headquarters for all Space and Missile Defense operations globally.

In 2010, Mr. Coward was assigned as the nation’s first General Counsel and Staff Judge Advocate for U.S. Strategic Command, Joint Forces Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, the Department of Defense operational headquarters for the missile defense program. In this capacity Mr. Coward oversaw military litigation, military justice matters, and advised on a wide variety of other areas such as: national U.S. missile defense policy, civil litigation, government contract law, administrative law, fiscal law, ethics, employment law and international law.

Mr. Coward’s Story

Mr. Coward was assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado in 2011, where he served as the Brigade Judge Advocate for U.S. Army’s 4th Sustainment Brigade, Fourth Infantry Division, which was the headquarters for all U.S. Army logistics in a multistate region. Mr. Coward advised on a variety of military justice matters and he led a team of court-martial attorneys that handled high profile military litigation in Colorado. Mr. Coward also advised on a wide variety of contract, litigation, administrative, international, operational, and fiscal law matters. In 2012, Mr. Coward was assigned to the U.S. Army Trial Defense Service in Fort Hood, Texas as a Trial Defense Counsel. At Fort Hood he was quickly hand selected to serve as a Capital Defense Counsel and he joined the defense team representing Major Nidal Hasan, who was accused of the Fort Hood shooting. Mr. Coward served as the lead defense attorney for all writing and research, litigating a number of high profile appeals in federal appellate courts. Mr. Coward was also responsible for the litigation of all First Amendment, religious freedom, pretrial publicity, jury selection, and constitutional issues.

Following his assignment at Fort Hood, Mr. Coward left the active duty Army in 2013 and joined the law firm of Elkus & Sisson P.C. In 2015 Mr. Coward and JAG Corps colleague, Cory Tuck, founded the law firm of Aviso Law LLC where they specialize in representing military service members. Mr. Coward is licensed to practice in the State of Colorado, the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals, the United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, the United States Court of Appeal for the Armed Forces, The Federal District Court of Colorado and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Coward also serves as a Major in the U.S. Army Reserves. In this capacity Mr. Coward has returned to his role as the General Counsel and Command Judge Advocate for US Strategic Command’s Joint Forces Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, where he is the senior attorney advising on the operational component of the US missile defense program.