[1][2] The position was to be filled by a flag officer, who was to report directly to the Department of Defense's General Counsel, who was at the time William J. Haynes.
Haynes has subsequently resigned, and the first Director reported to United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England and acting General Counsel Daniel J. Dell'Orto.
The first officer to be appointed Director was Brigadier Thomas W. Hartmann a military lawyer in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Hartmann had been reassigned from the position of Legal Advisor after the officers Presiding over three separate Guantanamo military commissions had barred him from participation after he was accused of putting "undue command influence" on Prosecutors.
[2] On 2 November 2008 Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Hartmann had filed a request to retire from the Air Force on 17 February 2008.