Attorney-Advisor (TERM)

As an Attorney-Advisor, you will be responsible for:

• Providing authoritative legal advice and services relating to audits, evaluations, investigations, and other products created by SBA-OIG components.
• Providing expert legal advice and guidance on OIG's most complex and precedent-setting legal matters in one or more fields, including civil, criminal, and administrative law and procedure; ethics law; appropriations law; procurement law; legislative affairs; information disclosure law (FOIA/Privacy Act); and employment and labor law.
• Serving as a principal legal advisor on a full range of SBA-OIG programs, operations, policies, and legal interpretations, ensuring legal sufficiency and consistency with applicable laws, regulations, and OIG objectives.
• Providing legal advice to executives and representing or supporting the OIG in presenting legal positions before administrative or judicial bodies, congressional staff, or other external entities, as appropriate.
• Resolving the OIG's most complex factual and legal issues by conducting comprehensive legal analyses, developing innovative legal strategies, preparing authoritative legal opinions and recommendations, and advising leadership on matters with significant organizational or government-wide impact.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen
• You must successfully complete a background investigation.
• You may be required to serve on a one-year trial period.
• You must possess a J.D., LL.B., and/or LL.M professional law degree.
• You must be an active member of the bar in good standing.

Qualifications

In order to qualify for this position, your resume must demonstrate sufficient specialized experience to perform the duties of this position. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities, as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to submit a thorough resume that directly relates to this position.

Applicants must possess a J.D., LL.B., and/or LL.M professional law degree from an American Bar Association accredited law school, be an active member of the bar in good standing (any jurisdiction), and possess at least 2 years of post-professional law degree experience.

Specialized Experience Statement:

GS-14: One year of professional legal experience after admission to the bar, one year of which provided specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-13 level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skill, and ability to perform successfully in this position. This experience may have been gained in a non-federal service position. In addition, this Specialized Experience must demonstrate the following:

• Conducting legal research and preparing legal opinions, memoranda, and other legal documents;
• Developing legal research strategies and resolving complex or precedent-setting legal issues;
• Drafting complex legal documents, including briefs, issue papers, orders, rulemaking documents, litigation-related memoranda, and reports containing legal analyses and recommendations involving civil, criminal, or administrative matters;
• Delivering oral presentations, communicating legal analyses and recommendations to senior officials, and effectively advocating and defending legal positions before internal and external stakeholders; and
• Providing authoritative legal advice and guidance to attorneys, management officials, and other professionals on complex legal matters.

All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 08/14/2026.

How you will be evaluated

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

Applicants meeting basic eligibility requirements will be further evaluated based on additional assessments. One of these assessment is USA Hire. Based on your application and your responses to the application questionnaire, you may be presented with instructions on how to access the USA Hire system to complete the online assessments. The online assessments must be completed within 48 hours following the close of this announcement. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation for the assessment should you have a disability covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Your USA Hire assessment results will be kept on record for one year and used toward future positions for which you might apply that require the same assessments.

The assessments relate to the following Competencies required to do the work of this position:

• Legal, Government and Jurisprudence
• Decision Making
• Written Communication
• Technical Credibility

In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. One of the required assessments for this position is an online assessment that measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

The assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment.

Your application will be evaluated under the Category Rating method based on your assessments. You will receive a score based on the responses to the assessment questions. If, after reviewing your resume and or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience your score can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities. If you meet basic requirements for the position, your application will be evaluated and placed into one of three categories:

1. Best-Qualified: highly proficient with an overall comprehensive level of knowledge, skills and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, education, and training as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume.
2. Well-Qualified: competent in the position with an overall accomplished level of knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, training, and education as applicable, as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume.
3. Qualified: an overall basic level of knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, education, and training, as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume.

Candidates eligible for veterans' preference will be placed ahead of other candidates in the appropriate category for which they have been rated. Additionally, preference eligibles who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent and who meet Minimum Qualification Requirements will automatically be placed in the Best Qualified Category.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date/time of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application prior to final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents. Uploading documents to USAJOBs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system. You must verify that the documents are in the system with your application prior to final submission.

1. Your Resume must not include photographs. Resume length may not exceed 2 pages and must contain the following information:

• Name, address, telephone number, email address;
• Job Title (if Federal Service, provide series and grade; if not in GS plan, provide GS equivalent grade);
• If qualifying based on related unpaid (e.g. volunteer service) experience, you must provide hours worked per week and beginning/ending dates (mm/dd/yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy);
• If other than full time you must provide hours worked per week.
• PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. You must address the specific specialized experience required for each grade level of this position on your resume or application or you will be rated "Ineligible" for that grade level.
• Should you submit multiple resumes, only the latest uploaded resume will be reviewed.

2. In addition to the online application (resume and responses to the occupational questionnaire), you are required to submit the following forms, if applicable. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure all documents are legible:

• If you are using education as a substitution for experience (the announcement will state whether this is allowed), or if there is an educational requirement for this position, you must submit a copy of your transcripts (unofficial or official) that clearly describes your qualifying education. If selected, official transcripts will be required;
• If you are claiming Veteran status, you must submit a copy of all required documents to support your claim (e.g.: DD-214 Member Copy 4 showing type of discharge/character of service; Current Active Duty members must submit a certification of expected discharge or release from active duty under honorable conditions dated within 120 days; SF-15 Form and related documentation; VA disability letter)--see VetGuide;
• Veterans who are still in the service may be granted tentative preference on the basis of information contained in their applications, but they must produce a DD-214 (showing the character of service) or other proof of service to receive consideration for veterans' preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit FedsHireVets.gov.
• CTAP/ICTAP/RPL Applicants: Surplus or displaced employees eligible for CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP priority must provide proof of eligibility (RIF separation notice, notice of proposed removal for declining a transfer of function or directed reassignment to another commuting area, notice of disability annuity termination), SF-50 documenting separation (if applicable), your most recent SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with your application per 5 CFR 330, and your most recent performance appraisal.

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