Meet Tom

The 20th General Counsel of the U.S. Air Force and the 1st General Counsel for the U.S. Space Force, Tom Ayres has over 30 years legal and leadership experience in the Defense, Cyber and Aerospace fields. As the Chief Legal, Ethics and Compliance Officer for the Department of the Air Force, he was responsible for all legal advice given by the Department’s 2,600 military & civilian lawyers worldwide for an organization with an annual operating revenue equivalent to a Fortune 20 company. He also led a team to draft and then implement the legislation creating the Space Force, simultaneously becoming the first General Counsel for the U.S. Space Force. Tom spent the bulk of his professional career on active duty in the Army. In his final position in uniform, Major General Ayres supervised, recruited and trained the Army’s 10,000-member Judge Advocate General’s Corps, supporting 1 million Soldiers and 200,000 worldwide civilian employees. Prior positions included commanding the ABA-accredited JAG Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Chief Judge, U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Tom serves on several boards and is an adjunct at RAND Corp.

Throughout his career, he has been at the forefront of advising strategic leaders to transform organizations to adapt to the age of information technology, big data, and virtual services. With extensive litigation experience early in his career, he also completed multiple combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq as the principal legal advisor to commanders during combat operations. During his time in the Pentagon, Tom was responsible for compliance and investigations service-wide, and often also advised entities as diverse as the military academies, the NFL, and government leaders in Israel, Colombia and Myanmar, on technology transformation and compliance strategies. A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Tom began his military career as an airborne rifle platoon leader in Italy. He then earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Law.

Tom is married and has three children. He has been published over a dozen times to include in the Wall Street Journal. Tom is also active in church activities, youth sports and education and has served as PTA President.