Legal Administrative Specialist

Full Job Description

For more information on the Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys' Offices, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/.

This announcement will be used to fill four immediate vacancies in the Scranton and Harrisburg offices. As needed, additional positions may be filled using this announcement.

This position is also being announced to applicants eligible to apply through Merit Staffing procedures under 26-PAM-12883611-MS.

GS-5: To be eligible at the GS-5 level, you must have: at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-4 level; or four years of education above the high school level; or a combination of both specialized experience and education as explained below.

Specialized experience: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-04 level in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as performing the following types of duties: providing basic legal and administrative support to one or more attorneys including preparing and processing routine and recurring legal documents; reviewing documents with legal implications for accuracy and completeness (e.g., court documents, real estate documents, contracts, insurance or benefits claims, mortgage or loan applications, tax forms, or other types of legal documents); typing and formatting correspondence and forms; maintaining file systems; and obtaining needed information from files or general reference sources.

Education: Successfully completed 4 years of education above the high school level in any field for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite.

This education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university.

Combining Education and Experience: Successfully completed post-high school education may be used to meet the total one year of specialized experience requirement equivalent to the GS-4 grade level.

Only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement.

One full academic year of study (30 semester hours) beyond the second year is equivalent to 6 months of specialized experience.

GS-07: To be eligible at the GS-07 level, you must have: one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-05 level; or education; or a combination of both specialized experience and education as explained below.

Specialized experience: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-05 level in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as performing the following types of duties: providing legal and administrative support to one or more attorneys including preparing and processing routine legal documents; performing routine litigation support assignments such as assisting with organizing case information; preparing discovery including scanning, tagging documents; assisting attorneys in preparing for court such as preparing exhibits for court appearances, compiling witness and exhibit lists and/or documents needed for court proceedings; and establishing and maintaining a variety of files.

OR Education: One full year of graduate education leading to a degree in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Law, Information Technology); OR a Master's or equivalent degree in one of the related fields above, which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position.

Transcripts are required; OR a Bachelor's degree AND possess at least one of the following: (1) class standing in the upper third of the graduating class; (2) an overall GPA of 3.0 OR at least a 3.0 based on course completed during the final two years of your curriculum; a GPA of at least 3.5 based on the average of required course completed in the major field OR based on the average of required courses completed during the final two years of your curriculum; OR (3) election to membership in a national scholastic honor society.

OR Combining Education and Experience: A combination of specialized experience as described above and graduate education described above which when combined equal 100% of the requirements.

GS-09: To be eligible at the GS-09 level, you must have: 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level; or education; or a combination of both specialized experience and education as explained below.

Specialized experience: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level performing the following types of duties: Providing legal and administrative support to one or more attorneys including examining, preparing, editing, cite-checking and processing legal documents, tracking cases, evaluating, producing and presenting discovery.

Providing training and support in Legal databases and software (i.e. Eclipse, Relativity, Trial Director, etc).

Assisting attorneys with trial preparation to include items such as subpoenas, trial exhibits, information requests, pleadings, and correspondence.

Completion of factual legal research in legal and non-legal databases. Receiving visitors and telephone calls. Establishing and maintaining a variety of files.

OR Education: A Master's, LL.B., J.D., Ph.D., or equivalent graduate degree in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Law, Information Technology); or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree that is related to the position and demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position.

Transcripts are required.

OR Combining Education and Experience: A combination of specialized experience as described above and graduate education described above which when combined equal 100% of the requirements.

(Please note: Only education in excess of one full year is creditable.) To calculate your percentage of education, first determine the total number of hours that exceed 18 semester hours.

Then divide the total number of your excess semester hours by 18. To calculate your percentage of qualifying experience, divide your 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%. Transcripts are required.

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP)- The ICTAP provides eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies.

If your agency has notified you in writing that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your ICTAP eligibility; 2) you apply under the instructions in the 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 proof of eligibility to receive selection priority. Such proof may include a copy of your written notification of ICTAP eligibility or a copy of your separation personnel action form.

Additional information about ICTAP eligibility is at: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

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/. Major Duties:

Provides a wide range of technical legal and administrative support to one or more Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs). Work involves creation and editing of legal documents.

Work requires specialized knowledge of processes, procedures, and practices of legal support activities, as well as knowledge of administrative office skills, capability to provide automated litigation support, and ability to apply these skills to increase the effectiveness of the district.

Provides training and support in legal databases and systems to other legal support personnel. Provides administrative support in conjunction with legal duties to assigned area.

Typical assignments and duties will include: Prepares, proofreads and cite-checks legal documents. Assists with preparation of trial exhibits.

Provides assistance to attorneys and automated litigation support staff in trial preparation and courtroom presentations.

Utilizes various software applications and graphics hardware such as scanners and plotters. Conducts factual legal research using computerized databases and other sources.

Provides legal and administrative support to multiple attorneys. Tracks appointments and cases, assists in receiving, evaluating, producing, and presenting discovery.

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