What Happened?
Washington, DC-based US Department of Veteran Affairs has announced the Resignation of Will A. Gunn as General Counsel
About the Company
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established on March 15, 1989, succeeding the Veterans Administration. It is responsible for providing federal benefits to veterans and their families. Headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA is the second-largest of the Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs for health care, financial assistance and burial benefits. Of the 22.2 million veterans currently alive, nearly three-quarters served during a war or an official period of conflict. About a quarter of the nation`s population is potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans. The responsibility to care for veterans, spouses, survivors and dependents can last a long time. Two children of Civil War veterans still draw VA benefits. About 184 children and widows of Spanish-American War veterans still receive VA compensation or pensions. VA`s fiscal year 2013 spending is projected to be approximately $140 billion, including almost $64 billion in discretionary resources and nearly $76.4 billion in mandatory funding. The discretionary budget request represents an increase of $2.7 billion, or nearly 4.5 percent, over the 2012 enacted level.
About the Person
Will A. Gunn was sworn in as the General Counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs on May 26, 2009. Mr. Gunn is a retired Air Force colonel, having served as a military lawyer in the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps. In 2003, Mr. Gunn was named the first-ever Chief Defense Counsel in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions. He built a defense team and supervised all defense activities for detainees selected for trial before military commissions—the first proceedings of their kind to be conducted by the United States in over 60 years. Mr. Gunn won acclaim for his principled leadership and commitment to ensuring that detainees received effective representation. In doing so, he set the tone so that the military lawyers under his leadership were able to vigorously defend their clients. These efforts radically changed public perceptions about military lawyers and raised international attention on the Guantanamo prison camp. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Mr. Gunn graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with military honors in 1980. He is a 1986 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and while at Harvard, he was elected President of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, the nation’s oldest student run legal services organization. In 1990, he was selected as a White House Fellow and served in the Executive Office of the President in the Office of Cabinet Affairs. He also has a Masters of Laws degree in Environmental Law from the George Washington University School of Law and a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Mr. Gunn retired from the military in 2005 and was named President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington where he led one of the largest affiliates of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. In 2008, he founded the Gunn Law Firm to provide representation to military members and veterans in a range of administrative matters. Mr. Gunn has served as chairman of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Youth at Risk and has served on the boards of Christian Service Charities and the Air Force Academy Way of Life Alumni Group. He has held leadership positions in a host of other bar association and community organizations and has also received numerous awards and honors including the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau’s Outstanding Alumni Award, a Human Rights Award from the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the American Bar Association’s Outstanding Career Military Lawyer Award. In 2002, he was elected to the National Bar Association’s Military Law Section Hall of Fame. He is a licensed minister and he and his wife, Dawn, live in Northern Virginia.
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