Stephen H. Carpenter, Jr., was raised in Portland, Oregon, where he attended a Jesuit High School, and starred in x-country. He subsequently graduated from the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs. His legal education was garnered while at the University of Oregon (J.D.) and, most recently, while attending Georgetown Law (LL.M. In National Security Law). After his U.S. Army JAG Corps acceptance, Carpenter served as lead prosector of Task Force Falcon in Kosovo, and later as a trial defense counsel.
In 2004, Carpenter left active duty to become an Attorney General Prosecutor with the Washington State Attorney General´s Office in medical (M.D.) professional licensing cases. He then served as a Title VII plaintiff´s lawyer, before founding this firm in 2008.
Over the past 18 years Carpenter has defended countless servicemembers before military appellate courts, courts-martial and before boards of inquiry (BOI) In addition to his civilian defense work, Carpenter has previously taught as a adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law, been elected and maintained a leadership role, as Chair, of the Washington State Bar Association´s Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP) Section since 2025. He commonly hosts webinars on “cutting edge” military law legal subjects with legendary experts culled locally, in Washington State, and from around the United States.
Carpenter has lived full-time in Germany since 2016, which was when he joined forces with David Court, to found Court & Carpenter. Stephen is an AI enthusiast and has taught a class on criminal law and AI before a class at Tartu Law School, last year. He also attended and lectured on AI before NATO lawyers in Vilnius, Lithuania. In July 2026, Carpenter will attend an AI Ethics course at Oxford University, in England.
Carpenter holds a TS/SCI clearance and has passports from the United States and Estonia and the United States. He also speaks German, and resides in Germany year-round, as he maintains the only full-time military justice law office in Germany.