Office of the Solicitor-General in Brazil

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The Office of the Solicitor-General represents the Brazilian federal government, directly or indirectly, in judicial or non-judicial instances, and provides legal advice to the government.

Also known as AGU (Advocacia-Geral da União), the Office of the Solicitor-General is defined in the Brazilian 1988 Constitution as the agency in charge of the "Public Counsel", considered one of the Essential Justice Functions alongside "private counsel", the "prosecutors", the "public defenders" and the "judiciary".

Members of AGU must be bar graduated attorneys. The Solicitor-General, an office of ministerial rank, is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The Solicitor-General is required by the Constitution to be over 35 years old.

Before 1993 all the legal advising and representation of the federal government was performed by the "Consultoria-Geral da República" (CGR), a bureau within the Attorney-General's Office. To resolve the apparent conflict of having prosecution and defence functions performed by the same office, CGR was shut down and replaced by AGU, independent from the Attorney-General.

In addition to the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General, the Minister of Justice, as a cabinet member, completes the Brazilian law enforcement structure by being in charge of the Federal Police Department, amongst other duties.

[edit] Brazilian Solicitors-General since 1993

Solicitor-General	Date of Service	Appointing President
José de Castro Ferreira	February 1993 - May 1993	Itamar Franco
Alexandre de Paula Dupeyrat Martins	May 1993 - June 1993
Tarcísio Carlos de Almeida Cunha	June 1993 - July 1993
Geraldo Magela da Cruz Quintão	July 1993 - January 2000	Itamar Franco / Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Walter do Carmo Barletta	January 2000	Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Gilmar Ferreira Mendes	January 2000 - June 2002
José Bonifácio Borges de Andrada	June 2002 - December 2002
Álvaro Augusto Ribeiro Costa	January 2003 - March 2007	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
José Antônio Dias Toffoli	March 2007 - present

[edit] See also

• The Solicitor-General job in other countries

[edit] External links

• Official website of the Brazilian Solicitor-General´s Office (in Portuguese)