J. Brett Swanson

J. Brett Swanson serves as Chief Counsel for the NASA Office of JPL Management and Oversight (NOJMO), providing senior legal advice in support of NASA’s stewardship, governance, and management of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He advises NOJMO leadership on institutional governance, contracts, compliance, risk management, and coordination across NASA and with external stakeholders.

Swanson concurrently serves as Chief Counsel at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Edwards, California, where he is the principal legal advisor to the Center Director, member of the AFRC executive leadership team, and leads the Armstrong Legal Office, overseeing all legal matters affecting the Center.

He supports NASA’s oversight of its federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), ensuring effective management of legal risk and protection of NASA’s interests in its relationship with the government-owned, contractor-operated JPL. Swanson also serves as a NASA deputy ethics official, export control counsel, and legal advisor to multiple boards, committees, and councils, and is a member of the NASA Legal Leadership Team, which guides agency-wide legal policy and services.

Swanson joined the AFRC Legal Office full time in 2005 after earning his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. He completed a 12-month detail at JPL in 2015–2016 as Chief Counsel for the NASA Management Office. Throughout his career, he has served as a primary attorney-advisor in ethics, partnerships, procurement, employment law, and institutional operations, and has led agency-level working groups on Space Act agreement liability and insurance, and legal information systems capability development. His offices are integrated with the NASA Office of General Counsel at Headquarters in Washington, DC.