Legal Assistant (Office Automation)

To be eligible for a recent graduate appointment, ALL of the following requirements must be met: Recent Graduates must have obtained a qualifying associates, bachelors, master's, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying accredited educational institution within the previous 2 years unless military service interfered with a veteran's eligibility to apply during that two year time frame. Veterans meeting the above exclusion may apply within 2 years of discharge or 6 years from the date of receipt of the degree whichever comes first. (Go to http://www.ed.gov/accreditation?src=rn to verify accreditation status). Recent graduates must be United States citizens or owe permanent allegiance to the United States. (Currently, natives of American Samoa, Swains Island and certain inhabitants of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are the only groups that owe permanent allegiance to the United States.) You must successfully complete a background investigation to determine your suitability for Federal employment. All recent graduates are required to sign a Pathways Recent Graduate Participant Agreement. Recent Graduates serve a trial period for the entire duration of their excepted service appointment. Qualification requirements as outlined below: GS-5: To be eligible at the GS-5 level, you must have: at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-4 level; or four years of education above the high school level; or a combination of both specialized experience and education as explained below. Specialized experience is defined as experience reviewing documents with legal implications for accuracy and completeness (e.g., court documents, real estate documents, contracts, insurance or benefits claims, mortgage or loan applications, tax forms, or other types of legal documents); typing and formatting correspondence and forms; maintaining file systems; and obtaining needed information from files or general reference sources. Combining Education and Experience: Successfully completed post-high school education may be used to meet the total one year of specialized experience requirement equivalent to the GS-4 grade level. Only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. One full academic year of study (30 semester hours) beyond the second year is equivalent to 6 months of specialized experience. GS-6: To be eligible at the GS-6 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 level. Specialized experience is defined as experience reviewing legal documents such as complaints, motions, orders, answers, pleadings, and subpoenas for completeness of factual information; retrieving and assembling information for hearing and/or trial use; researching a variety of legal sources to obtain and/or verify information; and using automated software to produce legal related reports, documents, correspondence and related materials. GS-7: To be eligible at the GS-7 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 level. Specialized experience is defined as experience providing trial support to attorneys by preparing complaints, motions, subpoenas, orders, or other hearing and/or trial documents accurately and in proper format; verifying citations and statutory references contained in legal documents; assisting with discovery, hearing or trial preparation by performing duties such as compiling trial notebooks, assembling jury instructions, and compiling witness and exhibit lists; and using software applications and legal and non-legal databases to produce legal related reports and documents, conduct factual research, develop tables of contents and indices to briefs, and prepare courtroom presentations. To be qualified, you must type at least 40 words per minute based on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors. (A typing test may later be required.)

At the full performance level, you will support Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) by providing a variety of legal assistance and office support services. If selected, you will receive formal and/or on-the-job training as needed. Duties include: - examining, preparing and processing a variety of technical legal documents, e.g., complaints, motions, orders, answers, pleadings, subpoenas, etc.; - proofreading and cite checking legal briefs, memoranda, and other legal documents; - providing assistance to attorneys in trial preparation by conducting non-complex research of litigation, statutes, regulations and court cases and assembling exhibits, affidavits, and other legal documents; - maintaining calendar of assigned active cases, tracking filing, hearing, and trial dates, and scheduling conferences and interviews; - producing a variety of written documents and materials using a wide range of office software applications. Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress. Travel Required: None