Legal Administrative Specialist

The Legal Administrative Specialist (LAS) serves as a member of the Public Contact Team, located in the Veterans Service Center. The incumbent provides in-depth information and comprehensive assistance to veterans, their dependents, and beneficiaries concerning any matter within the scope of VA benefits and related non-VA benefits.
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to be credited towards qualifications. Provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.All education claimed by applicants will be verified upon appointment. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript to receive credit. Specific duties include:

• Coordinates counseling sessions with Veterans, their dependents, and their beneficiaries face to face, regarding all benefits available through the VA, as well as non-VA benefits available through other agencies. This is accomplished through in-person or telephone interviews, and correspondence.

• Explains in detail, VBA rating decisions and provides explanations for the decisions using extensive knowledge of VA benefits and services, claim and appeal processing procedures and benefit determination information and all pertinent information available in system of record.

• Assists with programs that include, but are not limited to, compensation and pension benefits, home loan eligibility, education, health care, life insurance, burial benefits, vocational rehabilitation services, general Social Security Administration benefit programs, other federal, state, and local domestic relations, and assistance programs.

• Prepares technical correspondence to veterans and their dependents providing benefit information, representation rights and response to miscellaneous inquiries.

• Explains pertinent legal provisions, regulations, and related administrative practices and their application to specific cases.

• Explains decisions made by the VA and communicates the reasons to the claimant for these decisions, orally or in writing. Advises on the right of appeals and assists claimants in making appeals.

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. The grade progression for this position is GS-09.

Work Schedule: Full-time, Monday - Friday; 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Compressed/Flexible: Available per agency guidelines
Telework: This position is eligible for situational (ad hoc) telework only. The selectee is required to report to the official duty station each scheduled workday. Telework may be approved only on a case-by-case basis with supervisory approval. Routine or recurring telework is not authorized for this position.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position
Position Description/PD#: Legal Administrative Specialist; GS-0901-07, PD# 02109A; GS-0901-09, PD# 40120A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Bargaining Unit: Yes
Financial Disclosure Report: No To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:07/14/2026.

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.

• For a GS-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05 level.
• For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07 level.

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.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below:
GS-07 Grade Level:

• Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is defined as (1) The ability to work with direct supervision or guidance when providing customer service, benefit counseling, and claim processing. (2) The individual must possess knowledge of researching relevant subject matter. (3) The experience should be significantly and directly derived from federal, military, or the private sector. Examples of specialized experience include but are not limited to orating to persons from a wide variety of backgrounds regarding VA benefits programs; performing research of local, state, and Federal laws and regulations to determine Veterans' eligibility for benefits programs.

Education Substitution: 1 full year of graduate-level education or superior academic achievement.

GS-09 Grade Level:

• Specialized experience is defined as (1) The ability to work with minimum supervision or guidance when providing customer service, benefit counseling, and claim processing. (2) The individual must possess moderate knowledge of researching relevant subject matter. (3) The experience should be significantly and directly derived from federal, military, or the private sector. Examples of specialized experience include but are not limited to orating to persons from a wide variety of backgrounds regarding VA benefits programs; performing research of local, state, and Federal laws and regulations to determine Veterans' eligibility for benefits programs.

Education Substitution: master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., if related.

Combining Education & Experience: If you do not fully meet the length of experience and education described for a specific grade level (e.g. have six months of experience and some coursework but not a degree), the two can be combined to total 100% of the requirement. Click here for more information.

Volunteer Experience: 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.

Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements: No special physical demands are required. The work is mostly sedentary. However, there may be some walking, standing, and carrying of light items such as papers, books, claims folders, and files from one desk to another or for returning to storage. Carts are utilized to carry large number of claims folders. This will require the incumbent to push or pull the cart from one are to another.

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/.To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:07/14/2026.

Volunteer Experience: 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.
Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements: No special physical demands are required. The work is mostly sedentary. However, there may be some walking, standing, and carrying of light items such as papers, books, claims folders, and files from one desk to another or for returning to storage. Carts are utilized to carry large number of claims folders. This will require the incumbent to push or pull the cart from one are to another.

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/.