Catherine (Cathy) Mitrano is currently the VA Acting General Counsel. She is also the Principal Deputy General Counsel, the senior career attorney in the Department of Veterans Affairs and manages 800+ legal professionals fulfilling the legal needs of all VA senior leaders, Administrations, and staff offices. She also serves as legal advisor to the General Counsel in matters relating to the Secretary’s goals and priorities, ensuring continuity and legal support in the assessment of the Department’s processes and procedures related to the development, writing, and rewriting of administrative regulations, legislative drafts and proposals. Her work crosses the full range of OGC activities including health care law, contracts, VA benefits, information law, medical malpractice, employment law, medical collections, and evaluating internal processes and recommending/implementing procedures to ensure efficient operation of OGC nationwide activities. She also serves as VA’s Designated Agency Ethics Official. This is Ms. Mitrano’ s second assignment as Principal Deputy General Counsel having previously served VA as its Senior Counselor, Acting General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel for Legal Operations, Chief Counsel for Florida and Puerto Rico; and as its Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Resolution Management, providing advice and support to all VA senior leaders regarding the EEO complaint process and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
Before joining VA, Ms. Mitrano served with the Department of the Army from 2007 to 2013, where she held dual roles as a Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Army Review Boards Agency. During her tenure with Army she was responsible for 15 military personnel boards, its Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance and Complaints Review directorate, and oversight of its prison system and law enforcement programs.
Ms. Mitrano is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and the Asian American Government Executives Network. She received on behalf of the Army the American Correctional Association Golden Eagle Award in 2011 and the US Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2013.
