The E-Ring

Meet the Pentagon’s new top lawyer (for now)

With the New Year’s Day retirement of Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer is now Johnson’s former deputy, Robert Taylor. Taylor, principal deputy general counsel and an environmental lawyer by trade, had served as No. 2 to Johnson since the beginning of the Obama administration, in 2009. He will serve as ...

By , a former staff writer at Foreign Policy.
DOD photo
DOD photo
DOD photo

With the New Year’s Day retirement of Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer is now Johnson’s former deputy, Robert Taylor.

With the New Year’s Day retirement of Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer is now Johnson’s former deputy, Robert Taylor.

Taylor, principal deputy general counsel and an environmental lawyer by trade, had served as No. 2 to Johnson since the beginning of the Obama administration, in 2009. He will serve as acting general counsel, Pentagon press secretary George Little said on Thursday, “until the President nominates a successor to Johnson.” No word on when that might be, or if the president is waiting to pick a new defense secretary before giving him (or her) a new top lawyer.

This is Taylor’s second run at the Pentagon. In the Clinton administration, Taylor served as deputy counsel for environment and installations, working on base realignment and closure (BRAC).

Kevin Baron is a former staff writer at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @FPBaron

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