General Counsel
Paul Hutter serves as the General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Office of General Counsel provides proactive legal advice and representation to the Department concerning all aspects of its program and management responsibilities. The General Counsel supervises 650 employees in Washington, DC, and in field locations across the United States. Mr. Hutter is also a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, where he served as a Judge Advocate for 30 years. Prior to assuming his current permanent position at VA, Mr. Hutter served on a 10-month detail to the Department of Defense (DOD), working on a team to transition the occupation government in Iraq (the Coalition Provisional Authority) to a U.S. Embassy. Previous to that detail, Mr. Hutter was called to active duty to assist with the development of a military commission process to support the Global War on Terrorism. Mr. Hutter was the Deputy Assistant Regional Counsel prior to his current assignment, and before that served as the Assistant Regional Counsel in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. Office of Regional Counsel. There, Mr. Hutter developed extensive experience representing VA in Equal Employment Opportunity, Merit System Protection Board and other hearings and trials before administrative and judicial tribunals. Mr. Hutter joined VA in 1992 as an appellate attorney specializing veterans court litigation, and was a staff attorney in the DC. Office of the Baltimore Regional Counsel before he became the Assistant Regional Counsel. Prior to joining VA, Mr. Hutter was a civil litigator in private practice in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he represented management in a wide variety of subject areas, including securities fraud, employment law and insurance defense. Mr. Hutter has also served in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps as a prosecutor, international lawyer, staff judge advocate and commander. Mr. Hutter attended the University of Santa Clara Law School, and has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University. Mr. Hutter received an LL.M. at The Judge Advocate General's School in 1987, and is admitted to practice in Calif., Hawaii and Va. He is a member of the bar of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the United States Supreme Court. He and his wife, Mary, reside in Virginia. Two of their three sons are Naval aviators; their eldest son is a chef in Alexandria, Virginia. October 2007
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