Paralegal Specialist

If selected for this position, you will join a well-respected team that is responsible for providing Paralegal Specialist support in the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina, located in Columbia, South Carolina, focusing in the areas of legal support services.

Typical work assignments will include:

• Preparing a variety of substantive legal documents for pre-judgment and post-judgment enforcement of debt owed to crime victims or the United States and its agencies.
• Interviewing debtors, employers, and others to obtain financial information and conduct asset investigations.
• Communicating with United States Attorney's Office attorneys and staff, law enforcement, court personnel, and agency officials.
• Reviewing, summarizing, and outlining debtor's financial condition and recommending appropriate legal action.
• Preparing legal pleadings necessary to commence affirmative litigation and Financial Litigation proceedings and subsequent motions.
• Maintaining a variety of trial-related documents.
• Processing civil debt collection claims referred from federal agencies.
• Making recommendations regarding debt compromise, write-off, and referral of claims.
• Enforcing criminal judgment and commitment orders and independently performing all functions to collect criminal fines and restitution.
• Monitoring the progress of pending cases and initiating action to ensure that legal and other documents are prepared and submitted within established deadlines.
• Serving as a contact person for Financial Litigation cases.

Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a United States Citizen or National to apply for this position.
• Selective Service: Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see http://www.sss.gov/).
• All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• 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.
• A probationary period may be required.
• If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application.
• Must provide resume and supporting documents (See required documents).
• Time-in-Grade: Current or former Federal employees applying under merit promotion considerations must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements for consideration within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement.
• You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement and before placement in the position.
• As needed, additional selections may be made using this announcement.

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: To be considered minimally qualified for this position, you must demonstrate that you have the required basic requirement and specialized experience for the respective grade level in which you are applying:

To qualify at the GS-09 level, you must possess:

Specialized Experience: At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors) performing (3) of the (5) duties listed below:

1. Performing research, evaluation, and analysis of legal topics;
2. Researching references to locate appropriate data using multiple online legal systems;
3. Organizing and preparing research material;
4. Determining information pertinent to a case;
5. Identifying appropriate reference sources and performing legal analysis.

OR

Education: Two (2) full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree; OR LL. B or J.D., in a related field of study to the position (e.g., Paralegal Studies, Political Science, Law, Criminal Justice, Forensic Studies). Education at the graduate level must be in an accredited college or university and must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position.

OR

Combination of Experience and Education: Graduate level education can be used if, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of the first full year can be used in this calculation. To calculate your percentage of graduate education, first determine the total number of graduate level hours that exceed 18 semester hours (or your school's definition of one year of graduate study), then divide the total number of your excess graduate semester hours by 18 (or your school's definition of one year of graduate study). To calculate your percentage of specialized experience, divide the total number of months of qualifying experience by 12. Now, add the two percentages together. The sum of the percentages must equal at least 100%.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR 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; religious; 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.

If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). For more information on the qualifications for this position, click here.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENTS: Merit promotion applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year at the GS-07 is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-09 level.

• You must submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in-Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade. No award SF-50 will be accepted; recommended SF-50s include promotions and step increases (within grade increases).