Jaime Areizaga-Soto is an attorney and public servant. In 2021, he was promoted to Brigadier General in the Army and appointed as Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the National Guard Bureau. Mr. Areizaga-Soto became the first-ever Hispanic JAG General Officer in the Armed Forces. In 2018, he was mobilized to active duty as the Chief of the Army National Guard Trial Defense Service, a division of 218 military attorneys and paralegals who represent the 360,000 soldiers across the 54 National Guards. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he practiced law for twelve years with large U.S. law firms focusing on cross-border infrastructure project finance.
He served as a White House Fellow assigned to the Treasury Department and was later appointed by the Obama Administration as the Senior Attorney Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Since 2014, he has served as the Deputy Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs of Virginia, where he has advised two governors on matters related to the approximately 730,000 Virginia veterans and ensuring an excellent relationship between the Commonwealth and the Department of Defense (DoD).
Mr. Areizaga-Soto graduated with honors from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and upon graduation was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He holds a law degree (juris doctor) and Masters in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, a Masters in Security and Defense from the Inter-American Defense College, and a Mágister from the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies (ANEPE) of Chile.
Mr. Areizaga-Soto is a member of the Bars of Virginia, New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been elected to and has served in senior positions of state and national bar associations. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mr. Areizaga-Soto is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French, and has basic knowledge of Italian.