Attorney Advisor (General) Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. OIG-2025-0038 Department Department of State - Agency Wide
Salary $120,579.00 to $195,200.00 Grade 13 to 15
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 6/5/2025 Close Date 6/25/2025
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Washington, DC


Summary

This is a public notice flyer to notify interested applicants of anticipated vacancies. The APPLY button is deactivated. Applications will not be accepted through this flyer. Interested applicants must follow the directions in the "How to Apply" section of this flyer to be considered. This notice is to gather applications that may or may not result in a selection. Notice of Result letters will not be sent to applicants who respond to this flyer.

Duties

As an Attorney at a minimum you will:

  • Analyze and provide cogent and concise verbal and written legal counsel, advice, recommendations, and reviews on a variety of issues of law relevant to (1) general OIG operations (e.g., HR, IT, Procurement, Appropriations, Ethics, Financial Disclosure, and other areas) and (2) to particular OIG work products such as reports of audits, investigations, inspections, special projects and evaluations.
  • Review OIG audit, evaluation, investigation, inspection and other review reports for legal sufficiency, which includes ensuring that any sensitive information is properly marked and withheld in accordance with the law.
  • Handle litigation; and to draft and review agreements, subpoenas; provide legal support to criminal and civil investigations, and conduct ethics, independence, and financial disclosure reviews.
  • Advise on, review, and respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act requests, appeals, and litigation.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • U.S. Citizenship is required.
  • Incumbent will be subject to random drug testing.
  • Copy of license to practice law.
  • Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance.
  • Statement of Employment & Financial Interest required prior to appointment
  • Bar Membership: You must be an active member in good standing of the bar of a state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
  • Males born after 12-31-1959 must be registered for Selective Service.

Qualifications

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Applicants that apply for this position must meet the following requirements to be eligible for further consideration:

Law Degree: Applicants must be a graduate of an accredited law school with a J.D. or LL.B.

Bar Membership: Applicants must be a current member of a bar in good standing in any state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

FOR GS-13 Applicants: All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Applicants that apply for this position must meet the following requirements to be eligible for further consideration: Law Degree: Applicants must be a graduate of an accredited law school with a J.D. or LL.M. Bar Membership: Applicants must be a current member of a bar in good standing in any state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Experience: Applicants must have at least two years of specialized experience with at least one year equivalent to the GS-12 level in the Federal Service, which provided you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of this position. The specialized experience must have been gained after admission to the bar. Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

  • Experience providing a range of advice on various federal practice legal disciplines, including those typically practiced in a general law office, such as fiscal/procurements laws, ethics, federal grants or assistance, administrative law, personnel laws, criminal law/procedures, and privacy.
  • Some experience in planning and conducting administrative or whistleblower investigations.
  • Experience personally handling sensitive or highly visible/high level official matters.
  • Experience in writing clear, concise and persuasive memoranda, advisory opinions, and other legal documents.

 There is no substitute of education for specialized experience for the GS-13 position.

FOR GS-14 Applicants: All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Applicants that apply for this position must meet the following requirements to be eligible for further consideration: Law Degree: Applicants must be a graduate of an accredited law school with a J.D. or LL.M. Bar Membership: Applicants must be a current member of a bar in good standing in any state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Experience: Applicants must have at least three years of specialized experience with at least one year equivalent to the GS-13 level in the Federal Service, which provided you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of this position. The specialized experience must have been gained after admission to the bar. Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following: 

  • Experience providing a broad range of advice on various federal practice legal disciplines, including those typically practiced in a general law office, such as fiscal/procurements laws, ethics, federal grants or assistance, administrative law, personnel laws, criminal law/procedures, and privacy.
  • Experience in planning, developing and conducting administrative or whistleblower investigations.
  • Experience personally handling sensitive or highly visible/high level official matters.
  • Experience in writing clear, concise and persuasive memoranda, advisory opinions, and other legal documents. 

There is no substitute of education for specialized experience for the GS-14 position.

FOR GS-15 Applicants: All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Applicants that apply for this position must meet the following requirements to be eligible for further consideration: Law Degree: Applicants must be a graduate of an accredited law school with a J.D. or LL.M. Bar Membership: Applicants must be a current member of a bar in good standing in any state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Experience: Applicants must have at least four years of specialized experience with at least one year equivalent to the GS-14 level in the Federal Service, which provided you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of this position. The specialized experience must have been gained after admission to the bar. Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

  • Knowledge of civil, criminal, and administrative law.
  • Skills in partnering, influencing, and negotiating.
  • Skills in successfully building relationships with customers, peers, and colleagues.
  • Ability to provide legal counseling, legal written and verbal opinions/ memoranda to customers.
  • Ability to provide clear and concise verbal and written communication.

There is no substitute of education for specialized experience for the GS-15 position.

Education

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. For a list of accredited organizations recognized as specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials, visit: www.naces.org/members.php.

See the qualifications section of this vacancy announcement for education requirements.

Additional information

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.  Acceptance of an excepted service appointment from applicants in the competitive service will require a written statement of understanding when voluntarily leaving the competitive service.

Merit promotion procedures do not apply.

Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be duly licensed and authorized to practice as an attorney under the laws of any State, territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, and be an active member of the bar in good standing.

To be eligible for Federal employment, male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must certify at the time of appointment that they have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under Selective Service law.

A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if the selectee fails to meet the pre-employment requirements, including failure to report to any of the scheduled appointments.

If found to be in the best interest of the government and agency, recruitment or relocation incentives may be authorized.

More than one selection may be made from this announcement if additional vacancies occur. If eligible, applicants to this announcement may be referred to other similar positions in other Bureaus/Offices in the Department for up to 240 days. Telework eligibility and security clearance requirements may vary for such similar positions.

  • Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement. Security clearance requirements may vary for such similar positions. 
  • Relocation or other incentives may be offered if found to be in the best interest of the government.

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER - Your Social Security Number is requested under the authority of Executive Order 9397 to uniquely identify your records from those of other applicants who may have the same name. As allowed by law or Presidential directive, your Social Security Number is used to seek information about you from employers, schools, banks, and others who may know you. Failure to provide your Social Security Number on your application materials will result in your application not being processed.

BUYOUT - If you previously left federal employment and received a separation incentive (buyout) and you are selected for this position; you may be required to repay the full amount of the buyout to the agency that paid you.

PRIVACY ACT - Your application contains information subject to the Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579.- 5 USC 552a). This information is used to determine qualifications for employment and is authorized under Title 5 of the U.S. Code, Sections 3302 and 3361.

FALSE STATEMENT - If you make false statements in any part of your application, you may not be hired; you may be fired after you begin work; or you may be subject to fine, imprisonment, or other disciplinary action.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION - For reasonable accommodation at the U.S. Department of State, please contact the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations at (202) 663-3474 or OAA@state.gov. If eligible, situational telework agreements may be permitted with supervisory approval. 

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

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

As vacancies occur and selection(s) are made, the Human Resources Office will review your resume to ensure you meet the hiring eligibility and qualification requirements for this position.

There is no formal rating system for applying veterans' preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of State considers veterans' preference eligibility a positive factor in the hiring process. For this announcement, all applicants will be reviewed to determine if they meet the qualifications for this position, specifically, the education and specialized experience requirements. Applicants will not be rated or ranked. All applicants that are verified to meet the required qualifications will be referred to the selecting official.

Your resume will be evaluated to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications required; and on the extent to which your application shows that you possess the knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), and other characteristics that are relevant to the duties of this position as defined below:

  • Knowledge of civil, criminal, and administrative law.
  • Skills in partnering, influencing, and negotiating.
  • Skills in successfully building relationships with customers, peers, and colleagues.
  • Ability to provide legal counseling, legal written and verbal opinions/ memoranda to customers.
  • Ability to provide clear and concise verbal and written communication.

Your resume serves as the basis for qualification determinations and must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable) as it relates to this job opportunity. 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). Your resume should include the dates of all qualifying experience (from month/year to month/year) and the number of hours worked/volunteered per week. For assistance with creating a resume, please click here.

Applicants must meet all the qualification requirements and submit any supporting documentation by the closing date of this announcement. Your application package must contain sufficient information to make a valid determination that you fully meet the basic/specialized experience requirements as stated in this job opportunity announcement for each grade level(s) for which you are applying.


You may preview questions for this vacancy.

Required Documents

All required documents listed below, that are applicable to you, must be submitted to OIGAttyHiring@stateoig.gov by 11:59 Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement.  Note: This announcement may be extended at any time without notice and does not indicate/imply a determination on applications has been made.

  1. Resume showing relevant work/volunteer experience, education and training. Include the start and end dates (from month/year to month/year) and the number of hours per week worked/volunteered. Your resume serves as the basis for qualification determinations and must support your answers to the completed online assessment questions. 
  2. Writing Sample– you must submit a writing sample (maximum 5 pages) with your application. This sample should be a short legal memo or opinion, or equivalent writing sample.  The 5 pages limit includes coversheets, tables of content, and subsequent pages, etc. Any pages after page 5 will be discarded and not considered. The sample should demonstrate the applicant's ability to write clearly and concisely, and ability to provide sound legal advice (preferably to client).
  3. Transcripts - you must submit a copy of your college and law transcript(s) from an accredited college and law school with your application. If selected, an official/sealed college/law transcript(s) will be required to verify education prior to employment.  
  4. Proof of bar membership – you must submit proof of bar membership from any state or territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with your application.
  5. References– you must submit three professional references with your application.
  6. Most recent SF-50s (Notification of Personnel Actions), if you are a current or former Federal employee (including those applying under a non-competitive or special hiring authority). The SF-50s must show: effective date, position title, series, grade, salary, tenure, position occupied, full promotion potential, and name of agency. Multiple SF-50s may be needed to show all required information (e.g., promotion, within-grade increase, and separation SF-50s). Award SF-50s often do not show the required information. 
  7. Veterans' Preference Documentation, if applicable. Veterans’ preference does not apply to this vacancy or as an Attorney Appointment within the Excepted Service. While there is no formal rating system for applying veterans' preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service, the Department of State considers veterans' preference eligibility a positive factor in the hiring process.  If claiming veteran's preference, you must indicate the type of veteran's preference you are claiming on your resume. Any supporting documentation received from veterans will be retained to document veteran’s status if selected.
  • To claim 5-point preference, submit a copy of your DD-214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty.
  • To claim 10-point preference, submit all required documentation outlined on the SF-15 (Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference) to support your claim (e.g., DD-214, official statement from the Department of Veterans Affairs, etc.).  If we cannot verify your 10-point preference claim, your application will be reviewed for 5-point preference.
  • To claim 10-point derived preference (i.e., spouses, widows, widowers or mothers of veterans), submit a completed SF-15 and all required documentation listed on the SF-15 to support your claim.
  • To claim 0-point Sole Survivorship preference, submit a copy of your DD-214 or another form of official documentation showing that your discharge or release from active duty occurred on or after August 29, 2008 and was based on a sole survivorship discharge.
  • For all preference claims:
    • DD-214 Member 4 copies are preferred and must show the dates of service, type of discharge, and any qualifying service campaign medals.
    • If you are currently on active duty and applying based on eligibility under the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act, you must provide a certification on letterhead from your military branch which contains your military service dates, expected date of discharge or release, and the character of service to show that your military service was performed under honorable conditions. The expected date of discharge or release must be no later than 120 days after the certification is submitted for consideration for this vacancy announcement.
  • For more veterans’ preference information, visit the USAJOBS Help Center.  

Please redact Personal Identifiable Information (PII) from all documents (i.e., SSN, DOB).

How to Apply

 The APPLY button is deactivated on this Flyer, application packages are being accepted directly by OIG.

At this time, we welcome USAID and USAID OIG employees that may be interested in OIG employment to submit for potential consideration the following information:

  • Current Resume with up-to-date contact information, cover letter (optional) and all applicable documents listed under Required Documents should be sent directly to OIGAttyHiring@stateoig.gov. Please redact Personal Identifiable Information (PII) from all documents (i.e., SSN, DOB).
  • Email subject line MUST include: Announcement Number: OIG-2025-0038
  • You should include in your email the title/series AND the lowest grade of a position you are willing to accept. (e.g., Attorney Advisor (General) 0905-13,14.15)
  • Resumes that are not sent to the correct box will not be considered.
  • In addition, resumes should NOT be sent as a link to another website, they must be a PDF or Word attachment. We will not download an external link to access the resume; it must be an attachment. Please DO NOT send additional attachments with Personal Identifiable Information (PII) through unencrypted email.

Your resume MUST include the following information for each job listed: Job title; duties (be as detailed as possible); month & year start/end dates (e.g., June 2007 to April 2008); and full-time or part-time status (include hours worked per week). It is the applicant's responsibility to verify that all information in their resume and documents, are received, legible, and accurate. HR will not modify answerers/documents submitted by an applicant.

Please note: Information submitted will be shared amongst hiring officials; at which time a candidate may or may not be contacted. There may or may not be actual vacancies filled from this flyer. No referral notifications or status updates will be provided for submissions. If a hiring official determines you have the needed skillset for the vacancy, a member of the OIG team will contact you.

Facsimile applicants will not be considered.

There may or may not be actual vacancies filled from this flyer. Notice of Result letters will not be sent to applicants who respond to this flyer.

Agency contact information

OIG HIRING
Address
U.S. Department of State
SA-39
Rosslyn, Virginia 22209
United States

Next steps

This is a public notice flyer to notify interested applicants of anticipated vacancies. There may or may not be actual vacancies filled from this flyer. This notice is to gather applications that may or may not result in a selection. 

If further evaluation or interviews are required, you will be contacted using the contact information listed on your resume. 

Our evaluation will be based on the information you provide. You should expect that we will verify performance, suitability, and security information and take that information into account in making employment offers. 


Note: We cannot accept applications on behalf of Federal Agencies. Application instructions are listed within the Job Description.


© 2006-2025, exclusive of U. S. government job opportunity announcements