Legal Administrative Specialist (Litigation Support)

Full Job Description

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

As needed, additional positions may be filled using this announcement.

To be eligible for a recent graduate appointment, ALL of the following requirements must be met: Recent Graduates must have obtained a qualifying associates, bachelors, master's, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying accredited educational institution within the previous 2 years unless military service interfered with a veteran's eligibility to apply during that two year time frame.

Veterans meeting the above exclusion may apply within 2 years of discharge or 6 years from the date of receipt of the degree whichever comes first.

(Go to http://www.ed.gov/accreditation?src=rn to verify accreditation status). Recent graduates must be United States citizens or owe permanent allegiance to the United States.

(Currently, natives of American Samoa, Swains Island and certain inhabitants of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are the only groups that owe permanent allegiance to the United States.) You must successfully complete a background investigation to determine your suitability for Federal employment.

All recent graduates are required to sign a Pathways Recent Graduate Participant Agreement. Recent Graduates serve a trial period for the entire duration of their excepted service appointment.

Qualification requirements as outlined below: GS-7: To be eligible at the GS-7 level, you must meet at least ONE of the following conditions, as defined below: Specialized Experience, Education, a combination of Education and Experience, OR Superior Academic Achievement.

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

Specialized experience is defined as: performing routine litigation support assignments such as assisting with organizing case information (i.e., scanning and creating CDs); providing support for court proceedings including preparing exhibits, compiling trial notebooks, and compiling witness and exhibit lists; verifying citations; and preparing a variety of legal documents; assisting in the use of technology to organize digital evidence; and editing a variety of legal documents, such as information requests, subpoenas, correspondence and memos.

OR Education: One (1) full year of progressively higher-level graduate education leading such to a degree in a related field (e.g., Legal Studies, Law, Criminal Justice).

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 Education and Experience: Combinations of successfully completed education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements.

OR Superior Academic Achievement: Possess a Bachelor's Degree or expect to complete the requirements for a Bachelor's degree within the next 9 months AND possess at least one of the following criteria: class standing in the upper third of the graduating class; an overall GPA of 3.0 OR at least a 3.0 based on courses completed during the final two years of my curriculum; a GPA of at least 3.5 based on the average of required courses completed in my major field OR based on the average of required courses completed during the final two years of my curriculum; OR election to membership in a national scholastic honor society.

Major Duties:

You will support civil and criminal litigation teams by performing litigation support duties necessary to process electronic discovery and prepare it for review and production, using a variety of litigation support software applications and methods requiring analysis of needs to determine appropriate methods to be used.

If selected, you will receive formal and/or on-the-job training as needed.

Duties include: Utilizing a variety of eDiscovery and Automated Legal Support software used in the collection, analysis, review and production of electronically stored information; Reviewing and evaluating referrals to determine the need for additional information and evidence, and planning a comprehensive approach to obtain this information and evidence; Coordinating with client agencies to ensure they collect, review, preserve and provide to the investigative team electronically stored information, which may be used in an investigation or disclosed in discovery; Assisting attorneys in pretrial preparations by preparing, scheduling, reviewing, and organizing discovery; notifying, interviewing, and managing witnesses; and researching case law; Assisting and/or training attorneys and legal support staff in organizing voluminous case information; Assuring documents are organized for efficient automated storage and retrieval by ensuring that electronically stored information obtained from agencies, defendants and third parties in discovery is properly prepared and loaded into discovery databases using specialized procedures and eDiscovery software.

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