Paul Hutter serves as the General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).   The Office of General Counsel (OGC) provides 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 field locations across the United States. 

Previously, Mr. Hutter served as VA’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning, where he provided interim leadership while the incumbent completed the confirmation process. 

Before his assignment to Policy and Planning, Mr. Hutter served as the Assistant General Counsel for Management and Operations.  As such, he supervised OGC’s 22 Regional Offices, all corollary field operations and the Law Library, Information Systems Division, Budget and Statistics Division, Human Resources Division, Legislative Information Division, and the National Training Director.  Mr. Hutter is also a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, where he served as as an Infantry Officer and Judge Advocate for 30 years.

During 2004, Mr. Hutter served on a Department of Defense team to transition the interim 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 at VA, 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 and, later served as a staff attorney in the Washington Area Office of the Baltimore 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.  During the same period, Mr. Hutter 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 California, Hawaii and Virginia.  He is a member of the bar of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the United States Supreme Court.  Mr. Hutter and his wife, Mary, reside in Virginia.  Two of their three sons are Naval aviators; their eldest son is a chef in Alexandria, Virginia.