Legal Assistant Job in Fort Worth, TX

Vacancy No. DE-25-CESC-12591040 Department Small Business Administration
Salary $44,117.00 to $57,354.00 Grade 6 to 6
Perm/Temp Temporary FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 10/25/2024 Close Date 11/1/2024
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Fort Worth, TX


Summary

You will serve as a Legal Assistant for the Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Capital Access (OCA), Office of Financial Programs Operations (OFPO), Disaster Lending Operations Division (DLOD), COVID-19 EIDL Servicing Center (CESC) in Fort Worth, Texas. This position provides oversight in all phases of operation of the COVID and Economic and Injury Disaster Loan Servicing Center.

Duties

As a Legal Assistant at the GS-0986-6, some of your typical work assignments may include:

  • Prepare and/or review legal or loan documents for completeness, accuracy, and compliance to assist individual borrowers with residential and/or business loans.
  • Perform clerical functions, which include answering inquiries promptly, handling sensitive information securely and professionally, and dealing with controversial issues tactfully.
  • Present information clearly and professionally, produce well-written grammatically correct, error-free materials, and contact colleagues or external customers regarding inquiries.
  • Use computer and other electronic equipment and software applications to produce written reports, spreadsheets, emails, and other documents or reports.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
  • This is a Term Appointment, which is a Competitive service position and does not confer competitive status, reinstatement rights, or eligibility for non-competitive conversion to a permanent job to the individual(s) selected. You may be promoted or reassigned to another term position within SBA's Office of Capital Access; however, you may not be non-competitively appointed to another Federal position. You will be given an initial Term Appointment up to 1 year, but not more than 4 years. If all other conditions of employment are met, this appointment may be extended, up to a total of four (4) years in increments determined by SBA.
  • By applying for this position with SBA's Office of Capital Access, you can enjoy challenging but satisfying work and join a highly motivated and diverse team that helps families and businesses rebuild their lives after a disaster.
  • The COVID-19 EIDL Servicing Center (CESC) Ft. Worth, TX location is conveniently located near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and DART/TRE Station. In addition, employees are eligible to apply for transportation subsidy to utilize the local DART/TRE bus/rail transit system.
  • Mandatory Overtime: In order to respond quickly and efficiently to disaster survivors, substantial compensated overtime hours may be required while on assignment (up to seven days a week and ten to fourteen hours a day).
  • Additional selections may be made from this announcement if identical vacancies occur within 180 days from the closing date.
  • This is not a bargaining unit position.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • U.S. citizenship is required.
  • You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government travel credit card.
  • Favorable background investigation and credit check are required.
  • You may be required to complete a one-year trial period.
  • This is not a bargaining unit position.
  • THIS POSITION IS LOCATED AT THE FORT WORTH OFFICE AND LEGAL ASSISTANTS ARE REQUIRED TO REPORT TO THE OFFICE FOR WORK FOUR DAYS A WEEK.

Qualifications

*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. If qualifying based on related unpaid (e.g. volunteer service) experience, you must provide hours worked per week and beginning/ending dates (mm/yyyy to mm/yyyy).

You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Experience:
To receive credit, you must indicate the month and year as well as the average hours worked per week for each employer. Average work hours must be stated on the resume to quantify each period of work experience or that experience will not be credited toward meeting the specialized experience requirement.
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.

GS-06: To qualify you must have at least 1 full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-05 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:
  • Providing customer service by responding to internal or external customer inquiries; and
  • Experience utilizing mobile and desktop productivity applications such as web browsers, email, spreadsheets, and word processing; and
  • Maintaining or safeguarding documents/records containing sensitive or confidential information in a business environment, such as
    documents containing personal financial information or Personally Identifiable Information (PII); and
  • Preparing or proofing legal documents.

Qualification Standards: Legal Assistance Series 0986

Education

There is no substitution of education for the Legal Assistance series.

Qualification Standards: Legal Assistance Series 0986

Additional information

If selected for this position, you will be eligible for benefits. The above link is provided for your reference to explore the major benefits offered to most Federal employees.

Reasonable Accommodation Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a reasonable accommodation in your online application. Requests for Reasonable Accommodations for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for Reasonable Accommodation must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for Reasonable Accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a Reasonable Accommodation, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

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 based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the results of the online assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

  • Clerical
  • Computer Skills
  • Customer Service
  • Legal, Government and Jurisprudence


Self-Evaluated Online Assessment.
Applicants who successfully pass the self-evaluated online assessment for the position will be moved to the next phase of the process which is the structured resume review.

Structured Resume Review.
Subject matter experts (SMEs) will review your resume to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. SMEs will not review additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume).

Applicants passing the structured resume review will referred to the hiring manager for consideration using a Category Rating system where applicants are placed in one of the three following categories:
  • Best-Qualified - highly proficient with an overall comprehensive level of knowledge, skills and abilities related to this position.
  • Well-Qualified - competent in the position with an overall accomplished level of knowledge, skills and abilities related to this position.
  • Qualified - an overall basic level of knowledge, skills and abilities related to this position.
Application of Veterans' Preference: The Category Rating process protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-veterans within each quality category. All the veterans must be selected before any non-veterans within each category.

For this position, disabled veterans who meet minimum qualifications for this position and have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10% (CPS & CP) are placed at the top of the Best-Qualified category regardless of which category they would otherwise be assigned to.

Preference eligibles who do not have a service-connected disability of 10% or more (XP or TP) are placed at the top of their quality category.

Required Documents

Required Documents
To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:
1. Your Resume showing hours worked per week, dates of employment, and duties performed.
2. Completed Questionnaire

3. Other supporting documents, such as:
  • Veterans' Preference documentation, if applicable (e.g. DD-214 Member Copy 4 or other Member Copy showing type of discharge/character of service, SF-15 Form and related documentation, VA letter, etc.)
  • Career Transition Assistance Program/Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program documentation, if applicable (e.g. Certification of Expected Separation, Reduction-In-Force Separation Notice, or Notice of Proposed Removal; SF-50 that documents the RIF separation action; and most recent performance appraisal.)
4. If you are requesting a reasonable accommodation to the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, submit documentation to support your request, including the Reasonable Accommodation Request Form found here.
(https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire)

DO NOT SEND YOUR RESUME OR ANY APPLICATION DOCUMENTS TO THE AGENCY CONTACT.

Your latest resume submitted for this position will be used for qualification determinations and supersedes previous submissions.

ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:
1. Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) or Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP):
If you are claiming CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, provide a copy of your most recent annual performance appraisal (which must show at least a "fully successful" rating or equivalent), and proof of eligibility, i.e., a RIF separation notice or Certification of Expected Separation, and SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location.In addition to meeting all qualification requirements and selective placement factors (if applicable), CTAP/ICTAP eligibles must meet the Well-Qualified criteria with a score of 85 or above based on the competencies listed above for the position in order to be given priority consideration. Information about CTAP and ICTAP eligibility is also on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at: CTAP/ICTAP. http://www.opm.gov/rif/employee_guides/career_transition.asp.
2. If you are a veteran with preference eligibility and you are claiming 5-point veterans' preference, you must submit a copy of your DD-214 or other proof of eligibility. If you are claiming 10-point veterans' preference, you must submit an SF-15, "Application for 10-Point Veterans' Preference" plus the proof required by that form.
3. If you are a male applicant who was born after 12/31/59 and are required to register under the Military Selective Service Act, the Defense Authorization Act of 1986 requires that you be registered or you are not eligible for appointment in this agency.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

How to Apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section below.

The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. The application process is as follows:

  1. To begin the application process, click the Apply Online button.
  2. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation.
  3. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59PM (ET) on the announcement closing date.
  4. After submitting an online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder.
  5. If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements (https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=USA_Hire_System_Requirements)
  6. Note, set aside at least 3 hours to take these assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found on the Additional Application Information page that can be located in the application record in your USAJOBS account.
To update your application, including supporting documentation, at any time during the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account (https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login). There you will find a record of your application, the application status, and an option to Update Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed.

To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account: https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login. All of your applications will appear on the Welcome page.

The application record in your USAJOBS account provides an Additional Application Information page that provides information regarding the documentation you submitted and any correspondence we have sent related to this application, including the invitation to take the USA Hire assessment. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means, visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/howto/application/status/.

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Agency contact information

Ebube Utomi
Address
COVID EIDL Loan Servicing Center - CESC
14925 Kingsport Road
Fort Worth, TX 76155
US
Learn more about this agency

Next steps

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 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.

To be considered for the position, you must meet all qualifications, including meeting or exceeding the cut score on the required assessments.


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


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