Manal Cheema, a native of Sharon, Massachusetts, is a lawyer and currently serves as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps.
Manal is a 2017 graduate of Tufts University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in Political Science, with a minor in Cognitive and Brain Sciences and a certificate in Ethics, Law, and Society. She also attended the University of Oxford as a visiting student from 2015 to 2016, where she studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. While at Tufts, Manal was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, Honos Civicus, and the Alliance Linking Leaders Across Education and the Services (ALLIES).
After graduating from Tufts, Manal was admitted to the University of Virginia School of Law as an inaugural Public Service Scholar. During law school, she interned at various federal agencies, gaining experience in counterterrorism prosecutions and international treaties, which serving on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review and as a Submissions Review Editor for the Virginia Journal of International Law. She received her juris doctorate in May 2020 and was awarded the Margaret G. Hyde Award, the law school’s highest honor.
After law school, Manal clerked for Chief Judge Kevin A. Ohlson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C., prior to entering active duty as a judge advocate in 2021. Her decision to join the Navy JAG Corps was inspired by her desire to both serve her country and pursue a career at the intersection of national security and military justice.
Since then, Manal’s legal career has taken her to some of the busiest and most strategic overseas installations in Japan and Guam. She was a trial counsel in sensitive assault cases with foreign-language evidence, a general court-martial involving financial crimes, and a prosecution related to an international drug ring. She supported service members and their families as a legal assistance attorney where she personally managed legal services for hundreds of clients. In her current capacity, Manal provides expert legal guidance to naval installations and forward-deployed naval commands, guiding scores of investigations, staffing ethics reviews, and ensuring regulatory compliance to empower naval leaders and advance warfighting readiness. In addition to her regular duties, she provides training, engages in outreach efforts within the JAG Corps and in the greater legal community, and serves on the Naval Law Review.
Manal is also the author of six law review articles and has contributed to the Lawfare blog. Her research primarily focuses on constitutional, tort, and international law and touches on topics such as information warfare, privacy and civil liberties, state responsibility over satellites, and military operations. Her recent co-authored publication in robotic system collision liability won the 2024 Rear Admiral Horace B. Robertson Prize in International Law.
Manal’s innovation, leadership, and service to both the military community and the legal profession and, earned her recognition as the 2024 Naval Legal Service Command Junior Officer of Year. Additionally, she was named one of the American Bar Association’s “On the Rise - Top 40 Young Lawyers.”
In her spare time, Manal enjoys making sourdough bagels, playing badminton, scuba diving, bouldering, starting new art projects, and hanging out with her kittens (if they allow it).
Manal Cheema, A17