38 U.S.C. § 311
Section 311 · General Counsel
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 17 court decisions — leading case Bagby v. Derwinski (1991)
Most recently applied in George v. McDonough (March 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
There is in the Department the Office of the General Counsel. There is at the head of the office a General Counsel, who is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The General Counsel is the chief legal officer of the Department and provides legal assistance to the Secretary concerning the programs and policies of the Department.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
Prior section 311 was renumbered section 1111 of this title.
Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 8(a) of Pub. L. 100–527, known as the Department of Veterans Affairs Act, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 102–83, §3(3).