Tremaglio named DeCA’s general counsel
Ralph J. Tremaglio has been named the Defense Commissary Agency’s general counsel effective July 23.
Tremaglio, previously deputy general counsel for commercial law since October 2014, fills a position left vacant when William Sherman retired May 21. Tremaglio had been serving as acting general counsel since that date.
“Ralph has a tremendous amount of experience in all facets of commercial and military law,” said Michael J. Dowling, DeCA’s acting director. “As this agency transitions to a new business model, we are fortunate to have a general counsel who has a proven track record in handling complex issues.”
As general counsel, Tremaglio is the chief legal advisor for the DeCA director and manages all federal and state court litigation involving DeCA or its employees related to mission and job performance in areas of equal employment opportunity, civil rights, labor-management relations, merit principles, civilian personnel law, procurement, contractor and licensee relations, patents, trademarks, service marks and copyrights, and all other aspects of personnel and commercial law.
He also serves as the designated agency ethics official and is responsible for Freedom of Information Act and Privacy requests, alternative dispute resolution, civil liberties programs, and the fraud, waste and abuse program.
Before becoming general counsel, Tremaglio served as DeCA’s deputy general counsel for commercial law since October 2014. In that position, he was responsible for the areas of government contract and fiscal law, ethics, administrative law, environmental law, installation law, procurement fraud, copyright and trademark law, and real estate claims.
Tremaglio previously served in the U.S. Army as a judge advocate, officially retiring as a colonel on Jan. 1, 2015, with more than 29 years of combined service on active duty and in the reserves. His final assignment in the JAG Corps was as the staff judge advocate for the Combined Arms Support Command Headquarters at Fort Lee, Virginia, from 2013 to 2014.
Tremaglio began his military career in 1985 as a field artillery officer. He later left active duty, joined the Army Reserve and attended law school at Widener University in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1993, he returned to active duty as a judge advocate assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and went on to serve in various JAG assignments stateside and overseas.
Some of his career highlights include serving as a trial attorney at the Army’s Contract Appeals Division from 1999 to 2002; the chair of the Contract and Fiscal Law Division at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School from 2005 to 2008; serving as the senior acquisition attorney for the Army in Europe from 2008 to 2010; the senior acquisition attorney for Iraq and Afghanistan along with being the command judge advocate, Central Command Joint Theater Support Contracting Command, at Camp Victory, Iraq, and Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, from 2010 to 2011; and judge advocate for the 21st Theater Sustainment Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany, from 2011 to 2013.
He also served as a prosecutor at both Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and with the 1st Infantry Division in Wurzburg, Germany. From 1996 to 1997, Tremaglio served as an operational law attorney with the 1st Infantry Division for both the Implementation Force II (IFOR) and the Sustainment Force I (SFOR) in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Tremaglio has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia (1985); a Juris Doctor degree from Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, Delaware (1992); a master of laws degree in military law from the Judge Advocate General’s School, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia (1999); and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (2003).
He is a member of the Maryland and Washington, D.C., bars and is allowed to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals Western District of Oklahoma and the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals.
Tremaglio’s awards include the Meritorious Civilian Service Award, two Legions of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (six awards), the Army Commendation Medal (two awards), the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the NATO Medal for service in Bosnia-Herzegovina.