OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL
The General Counsel is the principal
legal advisor to the Secretary of the Navy, and OGC attorneys assist the General
Counsel in providing legal services to the Secretary, staff, and personnel
throughout the Navy and Marine Corps. The General Counsel is appointed by the
President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Principal Deputy
General Counsel is appointed by the President. The Deputy General Counsel,
Associate General Counsels, Counsel for the Commandant of the Marine Corps,
Assistant General Counsels, and the Command and some Deputy Command Counsels are
Senior Executives appointed by the Secretary of the Navy. The General Counsel
appoints all other OGC attorneys.
OGC consists of approximately 580 civilian attorneys plus 30 uniformed Navy and
Marine Corps Judge Advocates located throughout the United States and overseas.
Approximately 300 attorneys are located in Washington, D.C., with the others in
95 field offices throughout the country and abroad. OGC also includes
approximately 50 Intellectual Property attorneys. The staffing within OGC Field
offices can range in size from one to a dozen or more attorneys and
paraprofessionals depending upon the size of the client organizations, and
magnitude of the client’s workforce, assets, budget and contracting authority,
multi-sited locations, and other variables.
The Central Office of OGC is comprised of OGC's senior leadership:
The Central Office also includes the
as well as a number of lawyers working in specialty legal areas such as:
There are also Offices of the Assistant General Counsels for:
These offices are located either at the Pentagon, the Washington Navy Yard, or Arlington
(Crystal City), Virginia.
The Office of Counsel for the Commandant of the Marine Corps is located with Headquarters,
U.S. Marine Corps at the Pentagon.
Each of the Department’s principal acquisition components have a Command Counsel
and a staff of attorneys to support their legal needs. They are
Our offices at Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Sea Systems Command, the Office
of Naval Research, warfare centers, a Navy laboratory, and a medical center include
intellectual property attorneys.
In addition to the above offices, OGC has a Counsel to the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific
Fleet and Counsel to the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Naval Forces Europe as well as
numerous attorneys serving as advisors to other Naval components.
Because each component of OGC is an integral part of the client organization it
serves, OGC avoids the highly structured hierarchy that characterizes the typical
Government organization. Legal practice demands the closest of personal relationships
among lawyers and between lawyers and their clients; therefore, OGC is managed with
an emphasis on teamwork, flexibility and a minimum of formality. Whether in the
Central Office, or on the staff of one of the Command Counsel, each lawyer is expected
to be personally responsible for assignments. The lawyer is, of course, under the
supervision of more experienced lawyers. At the same time, the lawyer represents
and deals directly with the client within the Navy on the matters assigned. OGC
clients include the Secretary of the Navy, Under Secretary, the Assistant Secretaries,
the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, the Commander-in-Chief,
U.S. Naval Forces Europe, the heads of the various business agencies of the Navy,
Program Executive Officers, various Commanding Officers, the Navy's contracting
officers, program managers, and other business executives. Some of these persons
become clients of the OGC lawyer almost from the attorney's first day of work.