Legal Assistant

Summary

The position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the General Counsel, Professional Staff Group (PSG) VII, Litigation Docket Room. The primary purpose of PSG VII is to represent the Secretary of Veterans Affairs litigation filed in U.S. Court of Appeals.

Duties

• Major duties: Reviews databases, evaluates information regarding appeals, and prints data from docket sheets in database for use by attorneys. Reviews documents and determines whether case should be referred to a paralegal or attorney for preparation of jurisdictional motion. Coordinates the agency's response, to include making necessary oral and written contacts with agency staff, prepares and mails correspondence, sets and tracks deadlines, and enters all relevant case information in litigation database. Reviews documents, determines deadlines for assembling evidence from agency files, and prepares correspondence, to include directions for assembling evidence, coordinates remands. Closes cases and coordinates remands, attorney fee payments, and appeals upon completion of court action. Distinguishes between different types of documents, interpret poorly written or confusing correspondence from appellants, and recognize matters requiring special handling or expedited responses. Researches case information in complex database to determine status of appeals, motions for reconsideration and other matters of appellate procedure. Understands federal statutes and court rulings regarding disclosure of confidential information, and uses discretion in determining matters requiring special handling. Assembles files and, based on knowledge of office procedures, obtains documents from multiple sources. Reviews legal documents according to court rules of practice and procedure and determines deadlines for attorney action. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm. Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Position is eligible for Ad Hoc telework (situational telework) as determined by agency policy. Return to Office (RTO): RTO mandates are in affect and selectees will be required to report to in person work unless they have an approved exemption already in place. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: PD81183A, PD81182A, and PD81181A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/08/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. For a GS-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6. For a GS-8 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to some former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. See the Required Document section below for more information regarding the SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS-6 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge of communications skills sufficient to respond to telephone and written inquiries from the public and VA officials concerning all varieties of legal inquires that require a limited amounts of research, processing automated data and ability to use a computer in support activities and to perform legal and program research. GS-7 Specialized experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-6 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Perform interrelated assistance work requiring review of several types of legal documents, knowledge of court rules of practice and procedure and general knowledge of all phases of the work of PSG VII in order to successfully complete miscellaneous assignments as necessary. GS-8 Specialized experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-7 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Detailed knowledge of court rules of practice and procedure to determine cases referred to a paralegal or attorney for preparation of jurisdictional motion, understand federal statutes and court rulings regarding disclosure of confidential information, use discretion in determining matters requiring special handling, knowledge sufficient to provide recommendations to assist Paralegal Specialists and Attorneys to plan strategies. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: Resume must include job title and employer name, number of hours worked per week, start and end dates (including month and year), list of duties and responsibilities for each position held. In addition, if the experience was a federal position, you must list series and grade for each position held. Failure to include this information may result in an ineligible rating. A full year of work is considered to be 40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. No special physical demands are required to perform work other than the lifting of government files that can be bulky and heavy (up to 60 lbs.) Work Environment: The work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts that require normal safety precautions typical of offices and meeting rooms, e.g., use of safe work practices with office equipment, avoidance of ripping and falling and observance of fire regulations. The work area is adequately lighted. heated, and ventilated. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be found well qualified, applicants must meet the following qualifications: Understands federal statutes and court rulings regarding disclosure of confidential information, and uses discretion in determining matters requiring special handling. Assembles files and, based on knowledge of office procedures, obtains documents from multiple sources. Reviews legal documents according to court rules of practice and procedure and determines deadlines for attorney action. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. Local Commuting Area: The local commuting area for this position is defined as being within 50 miles from Washington, DC. This includes all locations that fall within a 50-mile driving distance from 810 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC 20420.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary period Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a one year probationary period or two year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your one year probationary period or two year trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply and be considered for this position, you must complete all required questionnaires, assessments and submit all required documentation as specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 09/08/2026. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at: https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit and https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed.