Legal Administrative Specialist (Litigation Support)

Clarification from the agency

Well-qualified surplus/displaced Federal employees (CTAP/ICTAP) in the local area and current/former Federal employees in permanent competitive service positions (status candidates). VEOA eligibles and those eligible for non-competitive appointment under special hiring authority, e.g., Individuals with Disabilities, Military Spouses, former Overseas employees, VISTA/Peace Corps, some Land Management employees, and certain veterans, e.g., VRA, 30% Disabled. see link in "How to Apply"

This Legal Administrative Specialist (Litigation Support) supports civil and/or criminal case teams by performing routine litigation support duties necessary to prepare or manage electronic discovery, evidence, exhibits, and other electronically stored information (ESI) relevant to investigations and casework, using a variety of methods and software applications. If selected for this position, you will join a well-respected team that is responsible for providing Legal Administrative Specialist (Litigation Support) support in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Fort Pierce, Florida; Miami, Florida; West Palm Beach, Florida, focusing in the areas of litigation support; customer support; project management; case presentation and preparation. Typical work assignments will include:

• Performing routine litigation support duties necessary to process common electronically stored information (ESI) (e.g., PDF files, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint files, emails, etc.) and prepare it for review or production by the case team.
• Performing routine litigation support tasks relating to case teams' review of common ESI.
• Providing advice, customer support services, and project management services in connection with electronic discovery, litigation support projects, and litigation technology software applications.
• Providing technical assistance to case teams presenting or filing electronic evidence or exhibits in civil or criminal legal proceedings.
• Providing trial preparation, including drafting legal documents, motions, subpoenas, creates electronic versions of exhibits for court fi lings, depositions, hearings, or trials.
• Managing and processing complex electronically stored information (ESI) using appropriate tools;
• Applying knowledge of court programs, automation requirements, and resolving problems;

Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory pre-employment adjudication. This includes fingerprint, credit and tax checks, and drug testing. Continued employment is subject to a favorable adjudication of a background investigation.
• You must be registered for Selective Service, if applicable.
• If selected, you may be required to complete a one year probationary period.
• Time-in-Grade: Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement.
• You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement and before placement in the position.

Qualifications

To qualify GS-7 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-05 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized Experience is defined as performing the majority of the following duties:
Developing a plan for a document review database to support the needs of the litigation team;
Processing electronically stored litigation files to ensure accurate and current records;
Assisting in litigation support projects, and/or litigation technology software applications;
Providing customer support services to litigation team in electronic discovery for case preparation and presentation.

Education: One of the following types of education in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Law, Information Technology - One full year of graduate level education. OR completion of a bachelor's degree AND also meet the requirements under the superior academic achievement provision. OR a combination of the required specialized experience and education which combined equal 100% of the requirements described.

To qualify at the GS-9 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in the Federal service performing (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized Experience- You must have specialized experience performing the majority of the following duties (3 out of 4):

• Performing routine and recurring litigation support assignments (such as processing common electronic files, loading image, native, and text files into document review databases, performing and assisting with basic document review tool functions, preparing electronic discovery productions, or preparing electronic materials for filing or presentation in civil or criminal legal proceedings;
• Assisting in analyzing case requirements to identify appropriate litigation support approaches and options;
• Providing automated support to prepare and organize exhibits, evidence, and data relevant to cases presented before a jury, grand jury or in other legal proceedings.
• Providing advice, customer support, or project management services in relation to electronic discovery, litigation support projects, and litigation technology software applications; Identifying and resolving technical issues relating to litigation support tasks.

Education: One of the following types of education in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Law, Information Technology). A master's degree in a related field. OR equivalent graduate degree; OR 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree. OR LL.B. or J.D.) OR A combination of specialized experience as described in above, but less than one year; and I have at least one year of graduate education as described above, which when combined equals 100% of the requirements.

To qualify at the GS-11 level, you must possess: Specialized Experience: At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 level in the Federal service performing (obtained in either the public or private sectors.) You must have specialized experience performing the majority of the following duties (2 out of 3):

• Utilizing electronically stored information such as PDF files, portfolios, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, email files, non-standard or proprietary files, audio or video files, to prepare electronic discovery;
• Providing guidance to case teams on best practices and strategies for organizing, storing, reviewing, producing, or presenting electronic case materials related to civil or criminal cases;
• Analyzing litigation support project requirements to define and understand project objectives, sequence of events, work effort, duration of tasks, or associated resource requirements.

Education: One of the following types of education in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Law, Information Technology).
a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; OR 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR possession of a LL.M degree. Graduate level education must demonstrate the competencies necessary to do the work of the position.
OR A combination of specialized experience and education described above which combined equal 100% of the requirements described. A combination of experience and graduate level education can be used if, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of the first two years can be used in this calculation.

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP)- The ICTAP provides eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your agency has notified you in writing that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your ICTAP eligibility; 2) you apply under the instructions in the announcement; and 3) you are found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and receive a score of 85 or better on established ranking criteria. You must provide proof of eligibility to receive selection priority. Such proof may include a copy of your written notification of ICTAP eligibility or a copy of your separation personnel action form. Additional information about ICTAP eligibility is at: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)-The CTAP provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in the Department of Justice with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your Department of Justice component has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your CTAP eligibility, 2) you apply under the instructions in this announcement, and 3) you are found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and receive a score of 85 or better on established ranking criteria. You must provide a copy of your written notification of CTAP eligibility with your application. Additional information about CTAP eligibility is at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) -VEOA allows eligible veterans to apply and compete for positions announced under merit promotion procedures when the hiring agency is recruiting from outside its own workforce. To be eligible for a VEOA appointment, a veteran must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed three (3) or more years of continuous active military service. If you are applying for a Merit Promotion announcement and wish to be considered under VEOA, you must submit a copy of the Member Copy 4 of your DD-214, in addition to any other required documents listed on this announcement.

Special Employment Consideration - Persons with disabilities, veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more, certain other veterans, spouses of certain members of the armed forces, and returning Peace Corps volunteers are examples of individuals who are potentially eligible for non-competitive appointments. For further information, click on the links provided below . You must specify in your online questionnaire under what authority you wish to be considered and submit appropriate documentation to verify your eligibility.
Noncompetitive Appointment Authorities Links:
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/competitive-hiring/#url=Types-of-Appointments

How you will be evaluated

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

This is an OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT and will remain open until December 11, 2026. Eligible applications will be referred at 30-day intervals (excluding weekends and holiday) throughout the open period, based on the schedule below. Applicants must meet all eligibility and qualification requirements by the cut-off dates listed below. Eligibility and qualification claims are subject to verification.

1. First Cut-Off - November 23, 2026: To be considered in the first review, applicants must submit their application package and complete the USA Hire assessments by November 22, 2026.
2. Subsequent referrals will proceed every 30-days until the closing of the announcement or until the positions are filled.
3. Final Cut-Off - Applicants who submit their application package and complete the USA Hire assessments after December 11, 2026 will be considered in the final review.

Your complete application package (resume/supporting documentation, online questionnaire, and USA Hire Competency Based Assessment) will be used to determine whether you meet the job qualifications listed on this announcement. If you are basically qualified for this job, your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses on the online questionnaire. If you rate yourself higher than is supported by your application materials, your responses may be adjusted and/or you may be excluded from consideration for this job. If you are found to be among the top candidates, you will be referred to the selecting official for employment consideration.

You will be rated on the following Competencies (see The OPM Website for definitions):
Attention to Detail, Customer Service, Decision Making, Flexibility, Integrity/Honesty, Interpersonal Skills, Learning, Reading Comprehension, Reasoning, Self-Management, Stress Tolerance, and Teamwork

To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package, which includes:

- Required: Your responses to the Online Occupational Questionnaire (This is completed automatically during the apply online process).

- Required: Your resume cannot exceed two pages - you will be deemed ineligible and receive no further consideration if your resume exceeds two pages - see USAJOBS for formatting requirements. Include relevant employment history as outlined below for each job:

• Official position title (if Federal, include series/grade),
• Employer name and contact information,
• Start and end dates (for full consideration you must include month, day, and year),
• Indicate full-time or number of hours worked per week if part-time, and
• A list of duties performed and accomplishments.

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.

- Required if you meet qualifications based on education: An unofficial college transcript (Note: If you are selected for this position, an official transcript will be required prior to your first day.) and foreign education evaluation documentation, if applicable, as described under the "Qualifications" section of this vacancy announcement.

- Required if you are a current or former Federal employee: a recent copy of an SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, showing title, series, grade, and full performance level (FPL); AND a copy of your most recent performance appraisal. Please note your SF-50 must include your FPL in the remark section (e.g., appointment, reassignment, promotion actions), pay adjustments and awards do not include this information so they are not acceptable.


- Required, if applicable: CTAP/ICTAP documentation (a copy of a separation notice or other proof of eligibility for priority selection; a copy of an SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, showing current position, grade, promotion potential, and duty location; AND a copy of your most recent performance appraisal.

- If you are requesting a reasonable accommodation to the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you must submit documentation to support your request, including the Reasonable Accommodation Request Form found at: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire

- Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office by providing a copy of your applicable SF-50, along with a statement that provides the following information regarding your most recent political appointment:

• Position title;
• Type of appointment (Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES, or Presidential Appointee);
• Agency; and
• Beginning and ending dates of appointment.

Next steps