NORWICH – Looking to contribute to the community he grew up in, a lawyer with almost 26 years of legal experience is opening a new practice in the City of Norwich.

Colonel Edward B. Downey served 27 years for the U.S. Army, six years on active duty and the rest as a reservist. Much of that time was spent in the Judge Advocate General’s Office (JAG).

“I graduated from Norwich with the class of 73’. Back then I needed a way to pay for my college, having grown up on a shoe string income, so I joined the Army’s ROTC,” said Downey.

Downey completed his B.S. at St. Bonaventure University in economics and graduated with honors, magna cum laude, later obtaining his J.D. law degree at Union University and Albany Law School. He was deployed to Bosnia in 1994 to 95 and then again called back again to serve in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. While in Iraq he served on General David H. Petraeus’ legal staff, helping create a new system for the fledgling Iraqi military. Downey aided in crafting the Iraqi military code of justice and helped integrate both judges and lawyers into the new Iraqi military system.