Summary
The Attorney Advisor provides legal counsel on the full range of Federal personnel issues, including general employee relations matters, suitability questions, disciplinary and performance-based actions, and litigation before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and other Federal forums. The Attorney Advisor may also provide legal counsel on Federal administrative laws, the Farm Credit Act of 1971, and other issues.
Duties
As an Attorney Advisor, typical duties include:
- Providing legal counsel to agency officials on the full range of personnel-related issues impacting a Federal agency, including disciplinary and performance-based actions, and issues relating to Federal employment anti-discrimination laws, including requests for reasonable accommodation.
- Representing the agency in cases before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and other Federal adjudicatory bodies and administrative forums, including pre-hearing practice.
In addition to the duties described above, the Attorney Advisor may provide legal counsel on a wide range of Federal administrative laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and ethics laws. The Attorney Advisor may also advise agency officials on the Farm Credit Act of 1971 and questions arising from policy and regulation development and examination activities.
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
- Must be a U.S. citizen.
- Two year trial period required, if not already served.
- Suitability for Federal employment, as determined by a background investigation.
- Submission of financial disclosure report is required.
- Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
Qualifications
Basic Requirements: You must have a law degree (such as a J.D.) from a School of Law accredited by the American Bar Association
AND
You must be a member in good standing of the bar of a state or territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
In addition to meeting the basic requirements, you must meet the specialized experience statement(s) as outlined below:
To qualify for the VH-39 (GS-13 equivalent) band level: You must be a graduate from an accredited law school, be an active member in good standing of a qualifying legal bar and have three years of specialized experience equivalent to the VH-38 (GS-12) band level.
To qualify for the VH-40 (GS-14 equivalent) band level: You must be a graduate from an accredited law school, be an active member in good standing of a qualifying legal bar and have four years of specialized experience equivalent to the VH-39 (GS-13) band level.
Specialized Experience includes providing legal counsel to agency officials on Federal employment-related laws, personnel-related issues such as disciplinary and performance-based actions, and other employee relations matters; practicing before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB); and other Federal adjudicatory bodies and forums; legal analyses that are subject to statutory, regulatory, or time constraints; and drafting legal opinions, memoranda, and other documents.
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.
Education
If this position has a positive education requirement as part of the Basic Qualification Requirements, you MUST submit copies of your transcript(s) that include: your name, the name of the educational institution, course titles, number of semester/quarter hours, grade(s) earned and degree(s) awarded. Unless otherwise stated: (1) official or unofficial transcripts are acceptable at the time of application, or (2) you may submit a list with all of your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. Educational institutions must be accredited by one of the accrediting agencies or associations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.
Pass/Fail Courses: If more than 10 percent of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) were taken on a pass/fail basis, your claim of superior academic achievement must be based upon class standing or membership in an honor society.
Graduate Education: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.
Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university.
How You Will Be Evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps including submitting an application and completing the application questionnaire. Your resume and supporting documentation will be used to determine whether you meet the job qualifications listed in this announcement. If you are minimally qualified for this job, your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses on the Occupational Questionnaire.
Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):
This is an excepted service position, and not covered by the customary civil service hiring procedures. Veterans' preference principals are applied as far as administratively feasible and as result all qualified applicants will be referred for consideration without regard to their preference status. Applicants who have veteran's preference eligibility are encouraged to include their information in their cover letters or resumes and attach supporting documentation to substantiate their preference.
How to Apply
To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. A complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration.
- To begin, click Apply to access the online application. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account to apply. If you do not have a USAJOBS account, you will need to create one before beginning the application.
- Follow the prompts to select your resume and/or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. You will have the opportunity to upload additional documents to include in your application before it is submitted. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
- After acknowledging you have reviewed your application package, complete the "Include Personal Information" section as you deem appropriate and click to continue with the application process.
- You will be taken to the online application which you must complete in order to apply for the position. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation is included with your application package, and submit the application.
To verify the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account and all of your applications will appear on the Welcome screen. The
Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated.
If applying online poses an extreme hardship, you may request alternate application procedures to submit your application package by fax. Contact Angela Brown between 8:15 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST, at least two business days prior to the closing date of this announcement at BrownAn@fca.gov or 703-883-4143. The alternate application package must be received in the Human Resources Division no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on the closing date of this announcement.
NOTE: Paper applications and documents sent via mail will NOT BE ACCEPTED.
If you need technical assistance with your online application, you can contact the USAJOBS customer support desk Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST, and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST. You can find answers to many of your questions on the
USAJOBS Help Center.
Next steps
Once your online application is submitted you will receive a confirmation notification by email. Your application will be evaluated. You will receive another notification about the status of your application. You can check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USAJOBS account and selecting "Application Status." We recommend that you also opt to receive USAJOBS status update emails.
Once referred, you may be asked to complete a structured interview, written demonstration, and/or fit interview as part of the assessment process. Deliberate attempts to falsify information may be grounds for not selecting you or for dismissing you from the position/agency during the probationary period.
Please notify us if your contact information changes after the closing date of the announcement.