Summary
This Senior Attorney (Policy Advisor) position is located in the Office of Passenger Rail (OPR) of the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The purpose of the position is to provide legal, administrative, and policy expertise as necessary to resolve complex passenger rail matters brought before the Board. This work also includes handling legally and factually complex assignments involving passenger rail issues within the Board's jurisdiction.
This job is open to
Clarification from the agency
United States Citizens
Duties
As the Senior Attorney (Policy Advisor) you will be responsible for the following major duties:
- Independently conducting necessary legal research, which includes investigating, analyzing, and performing the full range of professional legal work involved to complete adjudications and evaluations of on-time passenger rail performance cases.
- Provide public policy advice and recommendations to senior leaders and the Board.
- Draft and review legal memoranda and agency decisions.
- Work collaboratively with other staff on agency decisions, focusing primarily on passenger rail issues.
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
- U.S. Citizenship is required.
- All qualification requirements must be met by 10/01/2024. Your application package will not receive consideration if it lacks any of the required documents under the "Required Documents" tab.
- Trial Period: Two-year trial period may be required.
- Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. See http://www.sss.gov/
- Background Suitability Investigation: Continued employment is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a background investigation and the granting of a Federal suitability or security clearance. If selected, you may be offered tentative employment until the background investigation has been fully adjudicated.
- Must submit a complete resume, writing sample, cover letter and all required documents. Only experience and education obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered.
- E-Verify: If you are selected for this position, the documentation that you present for purposes of completing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Form 1-9 will be verified through the DHS "E-Verify" System. The STB is an E-Verify Participant.
- Relocation expenses are not authorized.
Qualifications
The Office of Personnel Management has not issued qualification standards for attorney positions. However, successful candidates must possess the following minimum qualifications before the closing date of this posting:
- A professional law degree (LL.B, J.D., LL.M.) from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA);
- Current membership in good standing of the bar of a state or territory of the United States, the District of Columbia or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. (Please note: Proof of bar membership will be required before entering on duty).
All candidates must demonstrate through their application documents: excellent research and writing skills, incisive legal analytical ability, strong oral advocacy and presentation skills.
A writing sample and cover letter are to be submitted with your application package.
GS-14
To be considered at the GS-14 level, candidates must have three years of professional legal experience: analyzing statutes, regulations, and decisional law, and presenting those analyses and relevant legal or policy issues for decision, resolving disputes, and possess a legal background in transportation, economics, administrative law, or government regulation.
GS-15
To be considered at the GS-15 level, candidates must have four years of professional legal experience: analyzing statutes, regulations, and decisional law, and presenting those analyses and relevant legal or policy issues for decision and resolving disputes in support of an efficient, competitive, and economically viable surface transportation network. Candidates at this level will also have experience providing advisement on complex technical issues concerning rail transportation.
For qualifications determinations, it is recommended that applicants include their months, years, and hours worked per week for each employment listed on their resume. To receive full consideration for specialized experience, please list month/year to month/year (XX/XX-XX/XX) or month/year to present (XX/XX-present) and the number of hours worked per week for each period of employment/experience listed in your resume. Your responses to the questionnaire must be supported/demonstrated in your resume. If a determination cannot be made about the length of your creditable experience for qualification requirements, you will be removed from consideration.
Education
You MUST provide transcripts or other documentation to support your educational claims. Unless otherwise stated: (1) unofficial transcripts are acceptable, or (2) you may submit a list with all your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.
You must provide your transcripts to support your educational claims. Transcripts may be unofficial copies, but they must come from an accredited college or university, and they also must include the courses' names and number of credit hours. To search the database of accredited institutions, visit: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.aspx
Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in the 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 U.S. accredited college or university. For further information visit: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html
Please Note: If selected Official Transcripts will need to be submitted directly to STB from the University (electronic transcripts are accepted).
How You Will Be Evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
Once the application process is complete, a review of the resume and supporting documentation will be made to determine if you are qualified for this job. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered to reflect more accurately the submitted documentation.
All candidates who meet the qualifications described above will be referred to the hiring official for consideration.
Preview the Assessment Questionnaire, https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12538141
Required Documents
Please be advised, that the following documents are required even if you are already a current Federal or STB employee:
1. Resume and Cover letter that includes the experience you wish to be considered for the review of your qualifications, the dates of employment with month and year, and hours worked per week, if part-time. Resumes that do not contain all of the necessary information to determine qualifications may be marked as insufficient and applicants may not receive consideration for this position. Your latest resume submission is the one that will be used to determine your qualifications.
2. Responses to questionnaire.
3. Educational Transcripts (unofficial transcripts may be submitted with your application.)
4. Writing Sample: applicants must include an unedited or lightly edited writing sample that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of the position and illustrates your ability to conduct complex legal research and analysis. The writing sample should total no more than 10 pages. Selected extracts of larger documents are acceptable. If appropriate, please attach an explanatory cover memo to your writing sample. Do not submit sensitive or classified documents or documents containing personally identifiable information.
5. Supporting documents verifying your eligibility or any preference eligibility along with your application package.
These documents may include, but are not limited to:
- Veteran's documentation: There is no formal rating system for applying veterans' preference to attorney appointments in the Excepted Service. However, if you are eligible for veteran's preference, you may attach supporting documents. If submitting DD214, a MEMBER 4 copy is required. If you are currently on active duty, you must submit an official statement of service from your command or other official documentation that proves your military service was performed under honorable conditions.
- Preference eligible documentation: If claiming a 10-point preference you must also submit an SF-15 and any other proof that you are eligible for a 10-point preference if a job offer is extended to you, a final VA letter including percentage (please do not include a letter from VA noting specific private medical information).
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
To apply for this position, you must complete the occupational questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above.
The complete application package must be submitted before the announcement closes on 10/01/2024. The following instructions outline our application process. You must complete this application process and submit any required documents by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, please contact us by noon ET on the announcement's closing date.
To begin your online application:
You must create a login.gov account if you don't already have one. You must:
-Create a login.gov account - you only need to do this once.
-Enter an email address during the account setup
- use the same email address you use for USAJOBS (your primary or secondary email address).
-Create a new password.
-Have a working phone number (mobile or landline) near you (login.gov will send you a security code).
-Finish setting up your login.gov account.
Once you've finished setting up your login.gov account, you'll go back to USAJOBS to finish the process. Double-check your USAJOBS Profile to make sure all of your information is accurate. You must use your login.gov email address, password, and security code every time you want to sign into USAJOBS. Follow the prompts in USAJOBS to take the online questionnaire and submit the required documents. See Required Documents section for more details.
Note: We recommend you don't use a .gov, .mil, or .edu email address. Instead, use a personal (non-government) email address when you create your login.gov account. Please do not use an email address you share with someone else
** For any issues signing into login.gov, go to https://login.gov/contact/
This and other STB positions may be filled using Schedule A, 5 CFR 213.3102(u). Schedule A is an excepted service hiring authority used to appoint persons with severe physical disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, and intellectual disabilities. Such individuals may be converted to permanent status after two years of satisfactory service. Documentation of disability is required, that is, a Schedule A Letter, which is used to verify that the applicant qualifies under Schedule A. This documentation must be provided at the time of application. A Schedule A letter can be obtained from a licensed medical professional (e.g., a physician or other medical professional certified by a state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory to practice medicine); a licensed vocational rehabilitation specialist (i.e., state or private); or any Federal agency, state agency, or agency of the District of Columbia or a U.S. territory that issues or provides disability benefits. A VA letter does not qualify as a Schedule A letter. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation for the application process, please include the accommodation request with your Schedule A letter.
Reasonable accommodation requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Next steps
All candidates will be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interview.
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