Legal Assistant (Office Automation)

At the full performance level, you will support Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSA) by providing a variety of legal assistance and office support services. Duties include:

• Providing substantive assistance to attorneys for national security and export enforcement litigative matters.
• Examining, preparing and processing a variety of technical legal documents, e.g., complaints, motions, briefs, affidavits, stipulations, proposed orders, and releases.
• Proofreading and cite checking legal briefs, memoranda, and other legal documents.
• Evaluates, and coordinates information to establish the facts and issues of specific litigation cases.
• Providing assistance to attorneys by conducting non-complex research of litigation, statutes, regulations and court cases.
• Manages paper and electronic documents and evidence, correspondence, briefs, witness interviews, and other documentary materials.
• Tracks filing, hearing, and trial dates, and scheduling conferences and interviews
• Furnishes requested information concerning pending and closed matters and cases, functions and general procedures of the office.
• Develops and maintains suspense system for ongoing cases and informs the AUSA of pending dates and deadlines.

• You must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory pre-employment adjudication. This includes fingerprint, credit and tax checks, and drug testing. Continued employment is subject to a favorable adjudication of a background investigation.
• You must be registered for Selective Service, if applicable.
• If selected, you may be required to complete a one year probationary period.
• Time-in-Grade: Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement.
• You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement and before placement in the position.

GS-8: To be eligible at the GS-8 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level

Specialized Experience: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level.

Specialized experience is defined as performing legal support work associated in the specialty area of law (e.g., national security, export enforcement, etc.) by preparing legal documents such as complaints, motions, briefs, affidavits, stipulations, proposed orders, and releases accurately and in proper format; verifying citations and statutory references contained in legal documents; assisting with discovery, hearing or trial preparation by performing duties such as compiling trial notebooks, assembling jury instructions, and compiling witness and exhibit lists; and using software applications and legal and non-legal databases to produce legal related reports and documents, conduct factual research, develop tables of contents and indices to briefs, and prepare courtroom presentations.

To be qualified, you must type at least 40 words per minute based on a 5-minute sample with three or fewer errors. (A typing test may later be required.)

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)-The CTAP provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in the Department of Justice with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your Department of Justice component has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your CTAP eligibility, 2) you apply under the instructions in this announcement, and 3) you are found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and receive a score of 85 or better on established ranking criteria. You must provide a copy of your written notification of CTAP eligibility with your application. Additional information about CTAP eligibility is at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.