Paralegal Specialist

Full Job Description

About the Position: This position supports the mission of the DHA Office of General Counsel, located in Pierce, Washington.

Note: Salary negotiation may be available for those candidates who are new to Federal service. Leave accrual negotiation may be available for those candidates who are new to Federal service.

Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job.

You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected.

Current Civilian Employees of the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Current Permanent Department of Defense (DoD) Civilian Employee Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) Interchange Agreement Domestic Defense Industrial Base/Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel Workforce Executive Order (E.O.) 12721 Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act Military Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473 Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI) Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Interchange Agreement Eligible People with Disabilities, Schedule A Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD MR and NG Preference Eligible Tech Receiving Disability Retirement Priority Placement Program, DoD Retained Grade Preference Eligible Reinstatement Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) of 1998 In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below.

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).

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application.

Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes conducting fact finding research on various legal assignments (i.e labor relations, equal employment opportunity, personnel, and/or ethics, etc), reviewing adverse actions for compliance with legal due process, and writing legal reviews on documents and/or case files.

This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the second lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-09).

OR Education: Ph.D or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M.

in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as: Paralegal Studies or Legal Studies.

OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%.

To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12.

Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages.

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-09).

Major Duties:

• Conduct research of statutory, regulatory, court and administrative precedents, and governing policy using available legal research tools.
• Integrate administrative law with related health care legal issues to review actions, draft pleadings and memorandums and to provide recommendations on legal sufficiency.
• Draft legal opinions and responses for Director signature on legal issues involving healthcare law, administrative law and government ethics.
• Assist Labor Attorney in litigation, involving all phases of discovery, pre-hearing, hearing and post-hearing.
• Obtain and develop further evidence and exhibits, providing administrative assistance and maintains exhibits, documents and files.
• Assist in the preparation of litigation reports, litigation hold orders and collection of evidence in connection with lawsuits filed against the agency.
• Prepare and maintain monthly status update for briefing to deputy directors and bi-weekly updated on administrative leave.