Department of Veterans Affairs seeks Veteran Law Judge

The Department of Veteran Affairs, Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington, DC seeks Veteran Law Judges for numerous vacancies. The deadline for applying is July 3, 2013. The salary range for the position is $129,065.00 to $138,878.00 per year.

Responsibilities:

• Managing, mentoring, training, developing and leading staff counsel;
• Reviewing requests for and determining whether statutory and regulatory provisions pertaining to hearings are satisfied;  
• Identifying the issues raised by and on behalf of the appellant and determining which of these issues has been procedurally developed for appellate review;
• Analyzing all previously developed evidence and appraising previous adjudicative processes by the originating agency; 
• Determining whether there are other parties with adverse interests who may be joined in a contested appeal;
• Recommending to the Chairman that subpoenas be issued or revoked;
• Correlating and resolving conflicting evidence;
• Fully considering all the evidence of record and issuing decisions which are completely independent and final, signed by the Veterans Law Judge and published to the parties in interest without prior review; 
• Ruling on motions, as provided by the applicable law and regulations; and
• Conducting in person or video conferencing hearings. 

Qualifications:

Applicants must have a full seven (7) years of experience as a licensed attorney preparing for, participating in, and/or reviewing formal hearings or trials involving litigation and/or administrative law at the Federal, State or local level.  Qualifying administrative law experience involves cases in which a formal procedure was initiated by a governmental administrative body and includes:

• participating in settlement negotiations in advance of hearing cases;
• preparing for hearing and/or trial of cases;
• preparing opinions;
• hearing cases;
• participating in or conducting arbitration, mediation, or other alternative dispute resolution approved by the administrative body; or
• participating in appeals related to the types of cases above.

Specialized experience is defined as experience dealing with laws and regulations pertaining to veterans' benefits, as set forth primarily in Title 38 of the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations, and areas of medicine and/or laws as related to the Board's jurisdiction.  This experience has been gained at the next lower grade level or its equivalent.