Careers - Career Paths at GAO - Legal Careers at GAO

GAO Attorneys Do Work That Matters

GAO attorneys:

• Provide legal advice and services
• Act as quasi-administrative law judges
• Serve as experts on federal appropriations law
• Serve as in-house counsel

Learn more about OGC teams and their work.

Legal advice and services

Most of our attorneys are assigned to teams to provide legal advice, analysis, and services to the Comptroller General and GAO analysts assessing federal programs. These services involve such diverse areas as homeland security and immigration law, environmental and energy law, banking and financial services regulation, health care law, and telecommunications law.

We also handle cross-cutting issues on questions of administrative law and regulatory process, fiscal law, constitutional law, government contracts, and information technology.

Furthermore, we advise on legal aspects of investigations of potential criminal violations, help draft legislation, and prepare and provide congressional testimony.

Quasi-administrative law judges

We have a well-known Procurement Law Group. Procurement attorneys act as quasi-administrative law judges in resolving disputes over the award of federal contracts.

We issue "bid protest" decisions using evidentiary hearings, alternative dispute resolution, and other procedures.

GAO's work has resulted in a body of decisions that essentially set out, for agencies and companies interested in doing business with the government, the standards for basic fairness in federal procurement competitions.

Experts on federal appropriations law

We are the government's experts on appropriations law. Appropriations law governs how agencies may spend public funds, and we issue legal decisions and opinions to Congress and agencies on these and a wide array of other issues.

We produce GAO's Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, the preeminent treatise on appropriations law, drawing on GAO's appropriations decisions. Also known as the "Red Book," this publication provides essential guidance to federal agencies on the proper spending of funds appropriated to them by the Congress.

Serve as In-house Counsel

Our attorneys in Legal Services serve as in-house counsel to GAO. We deal with a variety of issues in equal employment opportunity, personnel, and labor laws.

We advise GAO managers on proper personnel management. We also represent GAO in administrative hearings and federal courts in litgation involving GAO's work.

We also advise GAO on labor management relations matters, including collective bargaining with GAO's union.