J

udge Scott J. Laurer’s career—in fact, his 

entire life—has been shaped by one tenet: 

service before self.1

 From his childhood home 

where the older siblings watched out for the 

younger ones and the parents took care of the grandparents, through his accomplished career as a Navy 

judge advocate, to his current position as a judge, he 

has exhibited selfless service. 

Born as the third of seven children, he grew up in 

the historical town of Woodbury, N.J.. In this small 

town of about 10,000 people,2

 British General Lord 

Cornwallis planned the advance on Philadelphia. 

Founded in 1683, the town played a key role in the 

Battle of Red Bank, where roughly 600 American colonists defeated over 6,000 Hessian troops during the 

Revolutionary War. His childhood was reminiscent of 

the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, exploring the town’s 

lakes and waterways, fishing, and playing with friends. 

In the historical 18-room Victorian house in which 

he was raised, there was always something going on. 

Judge Laurer enjoyed growing up in a big family because it allowed him to lead and to follow. His family 

relied on teamwork, whether it was going to church, 

to school, or on a family vacation, everything was like 

a team operation just to get everyone ready. The older 

children would help with the younger children, so he 

walked his four younger siblings to and from elementary school. Then, later on, two of his grandparents 

lived with the family—first his maternal grandfather, 

and later his paternal grandmother. 

His upbringing, focused on family and faith, 

stressed service before self. He loved his country, 

his family, and history. His father served in the Navy 

during the Korean War era, and his uncle served in the 

Army in Vietnam. His maternal grandfather worked 

as a claims investigator for the Yellow Cab company 

in Philadelphia. He worked with attorneys and talked 

about his work with the family. Woodbury is the 

seat of Gloucester County, where the courthouse is, 

so there were always lawyers around town. When 

he completed a survey in high school to identify his 

career interests, he filled it out as candidly as he could, 

and the top profession recommended for him was 

attorney. The seed was fully planted. It never changed, 

and he still really likes being an attorney.

As a college student at Rutgers University-New 

Brunswick, he majored in political science. He spoke to 

a Navy recruiter, asking if it would be possible to attend 

law school part time while serving in the Navy. The 

recruiter advised that in the Navy, it was unlikely that 

he would be stationed in one location long enough to 

complete a law degree. Judge Laurer’s first goal was to 

become a lawyer, so he went to law school instead. 

While at Temple University School of Law, he 

learned for the first time that a person could be an attorney in the Navy. One day, he saw people in military 

uniforms in the student lounge, who he later learned 

were judge advocates. In an era before the internet, 

even the Navy recruiter he spoke to knew little about 

the Navy Judge Advocate General’s ( JAG) Corps. This 

was four years before the JAG television show and 

even before the movie A Few Good Men came out, 

where Tom Cruise played the leading role of a Navy 

judge advocate defending two Marines accused of 

murder. In Judge Laurer’s second year of law school, 

he applied to and was accepted into the Navy JAG 

Corps Student Program.3

 He was commissioned as 

an officer in the inactive Navy Reserve at the rank of 

ensign. After law school and passing the bar exam, he 

would need to serve three years as a judge advocate. 

Briana Tellado is a legal 

editor at the Court of Appeals 

for Veterans Claims. She 

previously clerked for Hon. 

Michael A. Toto of the 

Superior Court of New Jersey 

and served 10 years in the 

U.S. Army Judge Advocate 

General’s Corps. 

Judicial Profile

Hon. Scott J. Laurer

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

by Briana Tellado

34 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • September/October 2021
After finishing his second year of law school, he spent 

most of the summer attending Navy Officer Development School. During his third year of law school, he performed short periods of active duty for training at Naval 

Base Philadelphia, working at the legal service office and 

with the staff judge advocate for the commander of the 

naval base. After graduating from law school, he studied 

for the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bar exams while 

working at the naval base again for pay and legal experience. In November, after he learned that he had passed 

the Pennsylvania bar exam, he was ordered to report to 

the Naval Justice School in Newport, R.I., in January. 

There, he spent three months with a class of new judge 

advocates in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, 

learning about military justice, civil and administrative 

law, and legal assistance. 

The Navy ordered Judge Laurer to report to Naval Legal Service Office San Francisco for his first duty station. 

His first position (the Navy calls them billets) would be 

as a trial counsel (Navy prosecutor). He had been dating 

his then-girlfriend for two years. He knew he didn’t want 

to go to San Francisco without her, so they got married 

after he graduated from the Naval Justice School. 

So my initial commitment was for three years and 

I wound up serving 30. My wife would frequently 

tease me and remind me how I told her I was 

going to do my three years and get out, but she’s 

been my biggest supporter throughout. She deserves a lot of credit. She had never been west of 

Pittsburgh before we got married, and we wound 

up globetrotting all over the place. 

Why did he end up serving 10 times longer than he at 

first agreed to? “The Navy was more interesting, fun, and 

satisfying than I ever imagined.”

For his second billet, he was sent to Naval Special 

Warfare Group One in Coronado, Calif., where he served 

as the judge advocate for all the West Coast and Pacific 

SEAL teams. He deployed on missions and exercises 

with the SEALs, and his commander sent him through 

the Army’s airborne training at Fort Benning, Ga., where 

he was the only judge advocate in the class. But why does 

a Navy lawyer need to know how to jump out of Army 

airplanes? “The commander sent me not because I was 

likely to parachute in anywhere, but it was helpful in 

reviewing a high number of parachute mishap investigations. I learned to understand the terminology and 

process and procedure for jumping.” 

About a decade into his career, the Navy selected him 

to attend civilian postgraduate school. He earned his 

LL.M. in international and comparative law at George 

Washington University Law School. It was his first time 

being a full-time student without having another paid job. 

“Our daughter was born that year, so it was great both 

professionally, being able to attend graduate school at the 

government’s expense, then having sort of flexibility as a 

student in terms of time and how you can spend it.”

Throughout his distinguished Navy career, Judge 

Laurer was stationed overseas in Japan, Germany, and Italy. He learned some of the local phrases in every foreign 

country he lived in, but he really embraced the chance 

to study the German language while in Germany. He got 

to live among civilians in the town his paternal grandparents emigrated from in the early 1920s. After work, he 

attended German language classes two nights a week at 

a local volkshochschule, which offers evening courses for 

various age groups in many subjects. He remains conversant in German today. 

But being a Navy lawyer wasn’t all fun and games. 

While he got the chance to travel to some exotic 

locations, he made more than his share of sacrifices. He 

first experienced challenging living conditions while 

serving with the Naval Special Warfare Group. During 

those deployments, he usually stayed in tents in austere 

conditions. He learned the importance of covering his 

boot openings with socks when he wasn’t wearing them. 

Otherwise, his foot would be greeted by an uninvited 

guest when he put his boots on. 

Judge Laurer’s next deployments were aboard the 

USS Blue Ridge, the command and control flagship for 

the U.S. Seventh Fleet, which sailed from Japan. His 

stateroom (what civilians call a bedroom) was located 

right below the helicopter flight deck. Before that, he 

considered himself a light sleeper. But it sounded like 

the crew was always intentionally dragging the chains 

and dropping the chocks above him. His room on his 

next seagoing deployment wasn’t much better. Aboard 

the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, his stateroom 

was right below one of the carrier’s jet blast deflectors. 

When aircraft took off from the ship, the rumble from 

the jet blast deflectors would shake his books off the 

shelf as the aircraft were catapulted into the air. These 

were his accommodations, on a ship in the Persian Gulf, 

shortly after 9/11 happened and changed the strike 

group’s scheduled operations. His deployment began in 

support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation 

Southern Watch. “We were actually on our way home 

when we were ordered back into the Persian Gulf for 

Operation Iraqi Freedom.” What was scheduled to be 

a six-month deployment turned into 10. At the time, it 

was the longest deployment for an aircraft carrier since 

Vietnam. Judge Laurer and his wife expected him home 

in January 2003, in time for his son’s birth in March. But 

the mission came first, and his son came early. When he 

returned to the states in May 2003, his son was almost 

three months old. 

Later, as a senior Navy attorney, he volunteered to go 

to Afghanistan for a year. He first slept in a tent but was 

later upgraded to a CHU (containerized housing unit, 

like a metal shipping container). Because of his international law LL.M. and his experience serving in the Office 

of the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff as deputy legal 

counsel, where his duties included the international 

agreements portfolio, he was ultimately assigned as the 

special legal advisor to the commander of the InternaSeptember/October 2021 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • 35
tional Security Assistance Force and 

U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, where he 

drafted and helped negotiate the Bilateral Support Agreement between 

the United States and Afghanistan. 

Other high-profile billets included 

serving as the special counsel to the 

chief of Naval Operations and the 

commanding officer of U.S. Region 

Legal Service Office for Europe, 

Africa, and Southwest Asia. For what 

turned out to be his last active-duty assignment, the Department of 

Defense detailed him to serve as the 

deputy legal advisor to the National 

Security Council at the White House. 

The then-deputy national security 

advisor described the experience as being “like a deployment with a commute.” Judge Laurer agrees. “You’re 

working typically 12-plus hour days and frequently on 

weekends.” It was during this assignment that he developed close working relationships with attorneys from the 

Office of White House Counsel. In the second year of his 

detail, he was asked whether he was interested in a judicial 

appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans 

Claims. “It wasn’t something I was even considering,” he 

recalls. “I wasn’t seeking a judicial appointment at the 

time. There wasn’t much explanation other than, ‘Hey, we 

think you’d be a great fit for this court.’” 

In 1988, the Veterans’ Judicial Review Act4

 established 

the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals. Located in Washington, D.C., the court was renamed the U.S. Court of 

Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) in 1999.5

 As a court 

of record established under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, the CAVC is part of the U.S. judiciary and is not part 

of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Out of the court’s 

nine active judges, six of them are military veterans.6

 The 

court also has 10 senior judges, four of whom are currently 

acting in recall status7

 to help with the court’s increasing 

docket. The judges are appointed for 15-year terms. The 

CAVC has exclusive jurisdiction to review final decisions 

from the Board of Veterans’ Appeals concerning veterans 

benefits, including disability compensation, the G.I. Bill, 

pensions, burial expenses, survivor benefits, home loans, 

and eligibility for VA health care. The court also hears 

petitions for writs of mandamus. Appellants who prevail 

at the court may file a motion for attorney fees pursuant 

to the Equal Access to Justice Act.8

 Appellants who do not 

prevail may appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 

Federal Circuit.9

 The Federal Circuit first recognized the 

CAVC’s authority to certify class actions in 2017,10 and the 

CAVC published its new class action rules11 on Veterans 

Day in 2020. The court receives nearly 900 appeals per 

month,12 on par with the Supreme Court.13 Unlike the Supreme Court, the CAVC cannot refuse to hear any appeal 

by denying certiorari. 

The first step to becoming a judge was for then-Captain Laurer to complete an interview at the White House 

before a panel of seven White House and other agency 

attorneys. The timeline for becoming a federal judge is not 

set in stone, so he notified the Navy of his plans to retire. 

“I waited anxiously for the president’s official announcement regarding his intention to nominate me because 

in the military, you can’t just retire with two weeks’ 

notice.” After President Trump announced his intention 

to nominate Judge Laurer for a judicial appointment in 

late August 2019, his nomination was sent to Congress. In 

the meantime, he was subjected to what he calls “extreme 

vetting” through financial disclosure reporting and an FBI 

background investigation, which was even more detailed 

than the investigations required for his security clearance. 

Judge Laurer and the court’s other new judge, Judge Grant 

Jaquith, attended their combined Senate Veterans’ Affairs 

Committee hearing on Nov. 6, 2019. Two days later, Captain Laurer retired after serving nearly 30 years on active 

duty with the U.S. Navy JAG Corps. He was glad to have 

his parents at his retirement ceremony, especially because 

his father was himself a Navy veteran. 

Although Judge Laurer would not recommend 

changing careers in the middle of a global pandemic, his 

priority was assembling a chambers team with experience and knowledge in veterans law. He felt comfortable 

and knowledgeable about the practice of military law, 

Left: U.S. Navy Captain Laurer (center) accompanying 

U.S. Marine Corps General John Allen (left), who was 

then-commander of the ISAF and USFOR-A, during 

his visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Below: USS 

Abraham Lincoln homecoming to Naval Station Everett, 

Wash., with Judge Laurer’s two children.

36 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • September/October 2021
and national security law specifically, but 

had a lot to learn about veterans law. Three 

of the law clerks he hired have over 18 years 

of combined veterans law experience. Even 

the clerk who is a recent law school graduate 

had completed an internship with the 

National Veterans Legal Services Program.14

He also sought a confidential assistant with 

relevant experience and chose a former 

confidential assistant to the chief judge of 

the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 

another Article I court. His confidential 

assistant is also a retired Navy chief petty 

officer legalman (paralegal). 

He is grateful to everyone at the CAVC 

family, who he says made his transition as 

seamless as possible, and he especially praises the court’s development and execution of 

its continuity of operations plan. Everybody 

had practiced teleworking with the required 

technology, so when the time came to work 

remotely, the court didn’t miss a beat. The 

court has been working remotely for over 

a year and now holds all oral arguments 

through Zoom, which are live streamed over 

YouTube.15 Teleworking can be challenging 

at times, he admits. For example, he was 

holding an oral argument earlier this month 

when his internet connection quit. The 

argument was paused for a few minutes until 

his connection came back. Holding online 

interviews for his chambers team was also 

less than ideal, but he credits the court’s 

human resources team for exceeding his 

expectations in casting a wide net to harvest 

an exceptionally talented group. 

Even though he has been deciding cases 

at the court since September 2020, Judge 

Laurer’s chambers team met in person for 

the first time in March 2021, when he swore 

in one of his law clerks as an attorney. Still, 

he tries to foster a chambers where everyone 

can trust each other and collaborate openly. 

He also welcomes diversity of experience 

and thought. “Collectively, you can accomplish the mission in a way that you could 

never do with a group of individuals working 

on their own.” During chambers update 

meetings, his team often starts off with an 

icebreaker, such as “Would you rather?” or 

“Introduce your pet.” Judge Laurer also tries 

to keep himself approachable by not taking 

himself too seriously, such as when he wore 

a garish red, white, and green suit to the 

CAVC virtual holiday party. 

He has learned in the Navy that being a 

good mentor and supervisor means being 

there for people when they need you, 

sincerely caring about them, their careers, 

and their personal lives. He’s also committed 

to honesty. In the Navy, for example, he told 

his colleagues that if they wanted to remain 

competitive for promotion, they had to 

do certain jobs. “It’s not all necessarily the 

exciting stuff,” he said. There are some jobs 

that people may consider unpopular or less 

exciting, like working at the Pentagon in a 

windowless office.

When asked what makes a good judge, 

Judge Laurer reflected that he strives for legal 

ability, sound judgment, and composure. 

He thinks his military leadership experience 

has translated well into managing chambers 

because it really is a team or unit. He prides 

himself on his commitment to continuous 

improvement, described by the Japanese as 

kaizen, which means never being satisfied 

with “good enough” because “Our veterans 

and their family members deserve no less 

than that.” Judge Laurer seeks to reach the 

right legal decisions. But he’s also aware of the 

timeliness factor. “Justice delayed is justice 

denied for a lot of these veterans. Particularly in their later years, that becomes a key 

factor.” His favorite part about his new job 

as a judge? “The mission—making sure that 

veterans and their families get the benefits 

that they deserve. It’s the thing that makes 

me excited to get out of bed in the morning.” 

He’s also privileged and honored to lead his 

extremely talented chambers team. Finally, he 

enjoys the newfound judicial independence. 

“Coming from the executive branch and the 

Department of Defense in particular, where 

it’s very structured and hierarchical, to now 

being one of nine judges, is really cool.”

Judge Laurer has participated in several 

panel decisions of the court, which are decided by three judges, but most of the court’s 

opinions are single-judge memorandum 

decisions. For his first en banc case, he and 

Judge Jaquith are sharing writing responsibilities. He is inspired by the writing of 

Justice Antonin Scalia, who said: “Originalism is the only game in town—the only real, 

verifiable criterion that can prevent judges 

from making the Constitution say whatever 

they think it should say.” He also strives to 

write concisely in a way that every veteran 

can understand. 

Given the number of pro se claimants, 

and even if they are represented, it’s 

the veteran who is the claimant and 

we always have to remember to speak 

continued on page 43

The Federal Lawyer is looking to 

recruit current law clerks, former 

law clerks, and other attorneys 

who would be interested in 

writing a judicial profile of a 

federal judicial officer in your 

jurisdiction. A judicial profile is 

approximately 1,500-2,000 words 

and is usually accompanied 

by a formal portrait and, when 

possible, personal photographs 

of the judge. Judicial profiles do 

not follow a standard formula, but 

each profile usually addresses 

personal topics such as the 

judge’s reasons for becoming a 

lawyer, his/her commitment to 

justice, how he/she has mentored 

lawyers and law clerks, etc. If you 

are interested in writing a judicial 

profile, we would like to hear from 

you. Please send an email to 

Lynne Agoston, managing editor, 

at social@fedbar.org.

Judicial Profile 

Writers Wanted

September/October 2021 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • 37
w%20Amendments%2012.03.18.pdf.

8

337 F. Supp. 3d 687 (E.D. La. 2018) (Brown, J., adopting in its 

entirety as the opinion of the court the report and recommendation 

of van Meerveld, M.J.).

9

Id. at 694–706. 

10The full proviso, originally adapted from federal judges in New 

York, is: “The Court strongly encourages argument by junior 

attorneys, particularly where the junior attorneys drafted or 

contributed significantly to the underlying motion or response. 

Accordingly, if a junior attorney (i.e., a lawyer practicing for less than 

seven years) argues a motion or opposition for a party, the Court 

will allow multiple attorneys to argue for that party so that issues 

can be split between attorneys or a more senior attorney can offer 

clarification, if necessary.”

11For more on this late legal legend, see Adrian Guy Duplantier, U.S. 

District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, https://

www.laed.uscourts.gov/court-history/judges/duplantier (last visited 

Feb. 25, 2021).

to them, even in a highly complex technical area of the law. 

They should be able to understand our decisions and so we 

should not use legalese unless it’s absolutely necessary. 

Once the global pandemic is over, Judge Laurer looks forward to 

traveling again. Until then, he enjoys anything outdoors—gardening, 

hiking, and pistol shooting. He is an avid reader of history. He espouses the benefits of exercise and physical activity, crediting it with 

helping him stay healthy throughout the pandemic and helping him 

to stay sane through his job change. 

Endnotes

1

Skype Interview with Hon. Scott J. Laurer, Ct. of Appeals for 

Veterans Claims (Mar. 26, 2021). 

2

Woodbury, N.J., had a population of 10,174 in 2010. Woodbury 

City, New Jersey, U.S. Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/

quickfacts/woodburycitynewjersey (Apr. 1, 2010).

3

Student Program, U.S. Navy Judge Advoc. Gen.’s Corps, https://

www.jag.navy.mil/careers_/careers/opportunities_sp.html (last 

visited Apr. 27, 2021). 

4

Veterans’ Judicial Review Act, Pub. L. No. 100-687, 102 Stat. 4105 

(1988) (codified as amended in 38 U.S.C. §§ 7251 to 7299).

5

See Veterans’ Programs Enhancement Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-

368, 112 Stat. 3341 (codified in scattered sections of 38 U.S.C.). 

6

Judges, U.S. Ct. of Appeals for Veterans Claims, http://www.

uscourts.cavc.gov/judges.php (last visited Apr. 26, 2021). 

7

See 38 U.S.C. § 7257. 

8

Equal Access to Justice Act, Pub. L. No. 96-481, 94 Stat. 2325 (1980) 

(codified as amended at 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(F)). 

9

38 U.S.C. § 7292. 

10Monk v. Shulkin, 855 F.3d 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2017), class certification 

denied en banc sub nom. Monk v. Wilkie, 30 Vet. App. 167 (2018),

aff ’d, 978 F.3d 1273 (Fed. Cir. 2020). 

11See Rules 22 and 23 of the Court’s Rules of Practice and Procedure. 

U.S. Vet. App. R. 22, 23, U.S. Ct. of Appeals for Veterans 

Claims, Rules of Prac. and Proc. (Nov. 10, 2020), http://www.

uscourts.cavc.gov/documents/Rules11-10-2020.pdf. 

12CAVC received 872 appeals in March 2021. Chief Judge Margaret 

Bartley, U.S. Ct. of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Address at the 

Quarterly Virtual Employee Recognition Ceremony (Apr. 8, 2021). 

13The Supreme Court receives between 7,000 and 8,000 petitions 

for a writ of certiorari each Term. FAQs—General Information, 

Supreme Ct. of the U.S., https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/

faq_general.aspx (last visited Apr. 26, 2021). 

14The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) provides 

free legal representation to veterans and active-duty military 

personnel before the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Board of 

Veterans’ Appeals, and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. It 

also publishes advocacy and training materials for attorney and nonattorney advocates who represent veterans in their efforts to secure 

veterans benefits. What We Do, Nat’l Veterans Legal Servs. 

Program, https://www.nvlsp.org/what-we-do/ (last visited Apr. 

26, 2021). 

15United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, YouTube, 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkhT0OvwPHFaXd0ZEFup0g (last visited Apr. 26, 2021). 

Laurer Profile continued from page 37

Keep in Touch With the FBA

Update your information online at www.fedbar.org or send your 

updated information to membership@fedbar.org.

September/October 2021 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • 43