Mission: The General Counsel, National Guard Bureau (NGB) provides strategic level legal support, services, counsel, and opinions to the Chief, NGB, , the Vice CNGB, the Director of the NGB Joint Staff, the Directors of the Army and Air National Guard and their respective staffs as well as Service Readiness Centers; State Adjutants General; full-time State Judge Advocates, United States Property and Fiscal Officers; the Offices of the Army and Air Force Judge Advocates General, Army, Air Force, and DoD General Counsel; Federal Agencies including but not limited to: DHS General Counsel, DOJ, White House Legal Counsel, Combatant Commanders, JCS Legal, the Army Judge Advocate General Legal Center and School, the Air Force Judge Advocate General School; combatant commanders; other DoD offices; and other Federal and State agencies (including Congress), concerning operational law, environmental law, contracts, administrative law, and military justice and other areas of the law.

• Provides legal support to CNGB to fulfill his role as a member of the CJCS on matters involving the Army National Guard and Air National Guard.
• Review NGB staff actions for legal sufficiency when they require CNGB or VCNGB approval. Provide other formal legal reviews at the request of the NGB staff. Serve as proponent and OPR for all ANG and ARNG legal matters and policies as they pertain to the NGB.
• Provide oversight and supervision of the ARNG and ANG Directorate Judge Advocates.
• Provide legal advice on strategic legislative matters with enterprise-wide significance to the NGB, ARNG, and ANG, including NGB reports to Congress, NGB comments to Congress on draft legislation, and technical drafting assistance when requested by Congress.
• Provides legal advice and opinions on all aspects of military personnel law including accessions, promotions, discharges, release from active duty, sanctuary, retirement, disability processing, medical hold, and full-time support personnel; military pay and allowances, incapacitation pay, separation pay, retired pay, bonuses, loan repayment, and travel and transportation allowances; military benefits, entitlements, privileges, and protections such as medical care, FTCA and other claims statutes, SCRA, and USERRA; military programs such as physical fitness testing, weight control, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, Lautenberg Amendment, HIV, AVIP, fraternization/improper relationships, leave, pass, domestic operations law, state agency and any Federally applicable laws as well as permissive TDY policy.
• Review all CNGB issuances to ensure legal sufficiency. Provide legal advice on strategic policy matters, including final review of OGC legal opinions addressing revisions to DoD, JCS, NGB, Army, or Air Force policies and publications that implicate the authorities of the CNGB or VCNGB.
• Review proposed federal legislation and present associated drafts, reports, and comments as relevant to NGB missions, tasks, and functions.
• Provide advice to NGB leaders on military justice matters consistent with all applicable laws and regulations.
• Serve as primary legal liaison for military justice and administrative matters under the jurisdiction of the Military District of Washington. Provide legal advice on the DC National Guard-related authorities of the President, Secretary of Defense, Secretaries of the Army and Air Force, and Commanding General of the DC National Guard.
• Support ARNG Trial Defense Services with respect to its stationing and development.
• Provide oversight and exercise tasking authority to the Special Victims’ Counsel Program, which provides legal services to ARNG Soldiers and ANG Airmen.
• Provides legal sufficiency reviews of investigations (e.g., Inspector General, ARNG AR 15-6, ANG Commander-Directed, military EO, technician EO, line of duty, reports of survey), board of officer actions (e.g., withdrawal of Federal recognition, faculty boards, flight evaluation boards), other administrative actions (e.g., enlisted lengthy service discharges, letters of reprimand). Advises investigating officers on the conduct of cases.
• As DAEO designee, Serves as Ethics Counselor for the NG, provides legal guidance and assistance to NGB Ethics Counselors and State Judge Advocates on all aspects of standards of conduct and ethics, and collects statements of financial interests from required fillers, advises on private organization conference attendance, anti-lobbying rules, political activities, and holding civil office. Interfaces with other agency ethics counselors when necessary. Supervises State Ethics Counselors.
• Provide defensive litigation support for the NGB and State NG and assist Army and Air Force Litigation Divisions, and Assistant US Attorneys in the defense of cases including, but not limited to, the preparation of pleadings before federal district court, federal court of appeals and the federal court of claims.
• Provide legal advice to NGB on labor law issues and to the State NG on labor law disputes. Serve as Agency representative for NGB before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and other administrative forums. Provide legal support on civilian policy and programmatic issues involving Title 32 military technicians and Title 5 employees.
• Represent NGB in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) proceedings.
• Provides legal advice and opinions on environmental and real estate issues including acquisition, disposition, construction, and BRAC; negotiates, agreements on such matters with Federal and State regulators, to include property transfers, conservation buffers, air-space agreements, EPA notices of violation and compliance issues, and protection of natural and cultural resources of Federally recognition of Native American tribes.
• Serve as the Initial Denial Authority (IDA) for denial of information requested through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made of the NGB, ANG, and ARNG. This responsibility includes overseeing the NGB FOIA program by providing guidelines, procedures, and standards for NG compliance. Serves at the NGB Component Senior Official for Privacy and the NGB Component Civil Liberties Officer.
• Provide legal reviews on a wide-range of contracting actions in accordance with the thresholds set by NGB’s Head of the Contracting Activity (NGB-HCA).
• Provide legal support on all contract-related litigation matters (e.g., bid protest and Contract Disputes Act Claims) filed in the federal courts, the Government Accountability Office, or the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals.
• Provide legal training for state NG Judge Advocates, paralegals, and legal administrators, including formal instruction and Continuing Legal Education training. Provide professional responsibility oversight over ARNG attorneys.
• In conjunction with the OGC M-Day/DSG Special Assistants, OGC Field Advisory Council, and OGC Senior Enlisted Advisor, provide Title 32 outreach functions by serving as OGC liaison to NG Judge Advocates in the 54 states, territories, and the District of Columbia.
• Provide legal advice and opinions on the use and employment of NG forces for domestic and overseas missions and training. Provide subject matter expertise on operational law matters to support NGB legislative objectives.
• Provide legal advice and opinions on domestic privacy laws, Intelligence Oversight law, regulation, policy, and investigations and reporting of QIAs and S/HSM. Review all Proper Use Memorandums (PUM) generated in the NG and domestic use of unmanned aircraft systems. Provide guidance, inspection and monitoring to the field on privacy law and regulations.
• Provides legal advice and opinions on all NG cyber activities. Provides expert legal advice during the Cyber General Officer Advisory Council (GOAC).
• Provide expert legal advice and training to the NG CBRNE Response Enterprise to include legal support to the NG WMD-CST, NG CERFP, and NG HRF organizations. Includes advice to JSG in employment of medical personnel and equipment for domestic incidents such as man-made disasters and pandemics.
• Provide expert policy and legal advice to J3/4/7 and J32 for counterdrug support operations conducted by the 54 NG CDPs and 5 National Guard Counterdrug Schools (NGCS).
• Support the National Guard Strategic Planning System (NGSPS) in the development and coordination of NG Strategy Documents and NGB inputs to the Joint Strategic Planning System.
• Provide legal advice, opinions, and support on matters involving the State Partnership Program (SPP) and Security Cooperation (SC).
• Provide legal advice on Space Law and related operations, including U.S. Space Force authorities, National Guard space operations, and NGB Directorate of Space Operations matters.
• Provides legal advice and opinions, assignment and oversight of NG attorney liaisons to include, but is not limited to, NORTHCOM and the Judge Advocate General's School.
• Performs other duties as assigned.