Clarification from the agency

U.S. Citizens

• Responsible for activities pertaining to contract formation affecting the award of contracts, including review of Invitations for bid, Requests for Proposal, and source selection documents.
• Responsibility for acting as an official legal representative of the District in contacts with the U.S. District Attorney and other professional personnel.
• Responsible for activities pertaining to contract performance and administration.
• Responsibility for the preparation or review of complex legal issues, instruments, assemblies, or the preparation of legal opinions on complex questions relating to state and Federal laws and regulations.

Conditions of employment

• Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• This position has a Temporary Duty (TDY) or business travel requirement of 10% of the time.
• This position requires you to submit a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report (OGE450) upon entry, and annually thereafter.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: US Citizens

In order to qualify, you must meet the education and 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.

Education Requirement: An applicant must have successfully completed a full course of study in a school of law accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and have the first professional law degree (LL.B. or JD.).

In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below:

Specialized Experience: Three or more years of professional legal experience. Examples of this experience are: advising on the most difficult matters involving contract formation and award, including review of invitations for bid, requests for proposal, and source selection documents; acquisition planning, drafting non-standard contract provisions, contract funding and authorization issues, issue resolution, and advice on responsiveness and responsibility determinations; handling bid protests before the GAO, requests for equitable adjustment, claims, and litigation before the ASBCA; responsible for activities pertaining to contract performance and administration, including contract interpretation, review of contract modifications, terminations, suspensions/disbarment, contractor performance evaluations, and novations/assignments; post-contract activities, including contract closeout, architect-engineer liability, warranties, and latent defects; administers the procurement fraud prevention program; and advises on Anti-deficient Act issues and other fiscal law matters that involve unique/novel questions of law, difficult legal or factual issues, large sums of money, and/or very capable opposing legal talent or delicacy.

Bar Membership: An applicant must currently be an active member in good standing of the Bar of a state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. (must provide a copy)

Fitness to Practice Law: An applicant must currently be fit to practice law. If your fitness to practice law, or your conduct has ever been challenged you must submit a sworn statement giving the facts and circumstances, together with any explanations you consider appropriate. The sworn statement should be notarized and dated within 3 months of the date of your application. (If you are currently employed as an attorney with The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this requirement does not apply to you).

Time in Grade Requirement: If employed as an Attorney by the Federal government, you must have completed 1 year at the next lower level within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement or previously served at the same or higher grade as the position being filled.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may lose consideration for this position.

Basis for Rating: Basis for Rating: NOTE: Your application package (resume and required supporting documents) will be reviewed to verify that you meet the basic eligibility and qualification requirements. If so, your application package will be evaluated as to whether your experience, knowledge, skills, training and/or education clearly reflect that you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are required to successfully perform the duties of this position.

1. Knowledge and experience with Government contract formation and award, acquisition planning, contract performance and administration, contract closeout, and fiscal law issues.
2. Ability to analyze and provide legal advice during various stages of the Government contracting process, which involve unique/novel questions of law, difficult legal or factual issues, large sums of money, very capable opposing legal talent or delicacy.
3. Ability to balance multiple national (external) and agency (internal) program goals and priorities; ability to review program implementation and results; ability to balance customer programs with legal goals and priorities; and ability to develop and utilize innovative approaches in solving problems and issues.
4. Ability to organize work effectively to meet established deadlines and priorities.
5. Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with diverse clients and constituencies on varied and complex topics.

Veterans and Military Spouses will be considered along with all other candidates.

The documents you are required to submit vary based on whether or not you are eligible for preference in federal employment. A complete description of preference categories and the associated required documents is in the Applicant Checklist for Public Announcements.

As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

1. Your resume:

• Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration.
• For each relevant work experience, make sure you include the employer's name, job title, start and end dates (include month and year), for qualifications purposes, the number of hours worked per week, and a brief description that show you can perform the tasks at the required level listed in the job announcement. If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete, and you may not receive consideration for this position.
• Use plain language. Avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume.
• If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations, and you may not be considered for this vacancy.
• For additional information, to include formatting tips, see: What to include in your resume.

2. Other supporting documents:

• Cover Letter, optional
• Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable
• Time-in-grade documentation: If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old).
• This position has an individual occupational requirement and/or allows for substitution of education for experience. If you meet this requirement based on education you MUST submit a copy of your transcript with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses

3. If you are a current U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attorney, you MUST submit the following documents:

• Your latest non-award Notification of Personnel Action (SF-50);
• A writing sample (Optional, Not Required) NOTE: Writing samples shall not exceed 10 pages

4. If you are NOT a current U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attorney, you MUST submit the following documents:

• Copy of law school transcripts AND an official statement of relative standing in your class, or official statement demonstrating the unavailability of class standing information (official copies will be required if selected and before placement);
• Certificate issued by the Bar Registrar or similar official showing that you are a member in good standing with the Bar of a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia, dated NO MORE THAN 90 days before the opening date of this announcement (a copy is sufficient for the application, but a certified copy may be necessary upon selection);
• A sworn statement, certifying that your fitness to practice law or your conduct as an attorney has never been challenged in any jurisdiction. This statement MUST be notarized, on a date NO MORE THAN 3 months before the opening date of this announcement. If your fitness to practice law or your conduct as an Attorney has been challenged in any jurisdiction, you must provide a notarized statement concerning the facts and circumstances, and any other explanation you deem appropriate.
• The names of three professional references who are each members of the Bar of a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia.
• A writing sample NOTE: Writing samples shall not exceed 10 pages.

NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

Next steps