Andrew K. Kernan

Mr. Kernan is the Deputy General Counsel for Fiscal in the office of the General Counsel of the Department of Defense. In this role, Mr. Kernan is the Department’s most senior attorney on matters of Congressional appropriations, serving as the principal legal advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) and the broader Office of the Secretary of Defense staff pertaining to the development, request, and execution of the Department’s nearly $1 trillion annual budget. Further, Mr. Kernan and his office provide determinative legal guidance to the entire Department of Defense enterprise on fiscal matters, coordinating closely with senior legal advisors at every military department, defense agency, and combatant command. Mr. Kernan also supervises the General Counsels of multiple defense agencies, to include the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

Mr. Kernan assumed the Deputy General Counsel (Fiscal) position after 25 years of active military service in the U.S. Army, with 20 years as a Judge Advocate. Immediately preceding his current role, Mr. Kernan served as the Senior Associate General Counsel within the Fiscal division. Other prior positions include Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and numerous leadership roles within legal offices advising commanders and senior decisionmakers within the Department of the Army and its operational units at the Corps, Division, and Brigade level—as well as those advising various subordinate units or task forces of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. He is a combat veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Born in Oklahoma City and raised in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Mr. Kernan was commissioned as an Artillery Officer following graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He holds a law (J.D.) degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Law (Order of the Coif, summa cum laude), a masters of law (LL.M) degree in National Security Law from Georgetown University Law School (cum laude), and a Masters of National Security Studies at the National War College in Washington.