Ambassador Rees formerly served as a judge, as a law professor, and as a senior official of the executive and legislative branches of the United States Government. A native of Louisiana, he received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from Louisiana State University Law School.
From January 2001 until December 2002 he served as Counsel to the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives, where his responsibilities included Southeast Asian affairs, refugees, and international human rights. He had served the Committee previously (1995-2001) as Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. Ambassador Rees also served as General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (1991-93); as Chief Justice (and later Associate Justice) of the High Court of American Samoa (1986-91); as Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Texas (1979-86); as law clerk to then-Associate Justice Albert Tate Jr. of the Supreme Court of Louisiana (1978-79); and as press assistant to then-United States Representative David C. Treen (R.-La.) (1973).
Ambassador Rees is proficient in Tetum and Portuguese, the two official languages of East Timor, and also speaks Spanish, French, and Samoan.
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