The University of Montana School of Law will host former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon E. Panetta at noon Thursday in the George and Jane Dennison Theater. 

Vice President for Integrated Communications Peggy Kuhr said the university is particularly happy to welcome a speaker with such stature and experience in national and world affairs.

"Mr. Panetta has been instrumental in so many events in the United States in the last few decades," Kuhr said. "He served as the Secretary of Defense under our current president, he was the director of the CIA, he was chief of staff to President Clinton, and he's been in Congress, so this is a man who has a wealth of experience and especially given the events around the world, so it should be a very interesting conversation."

The event is the 2014 Jones-Tamm Lecture, and the conversation will feature Panetta and attorney Robert S. Bennett, a friend of the UM School of Law and member of the Jones-Tamm Committee.

Kuhr said the event is free and open to the public at noon on Thursday, April 24 in the George and Jane Dennison Theater.

"We are recommending that people arrive early for a good seat and to find parking," Kuhr said.

Vice President for Integrated Communications Peggy Kuhr

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