Legal Assistant (Criminal)

Summary For more information on the Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys’ Offices, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/.

As needed, additional positions may be filled using this announcement.

This position is also being announced to applicants eligible to apply through Merit Staffing procedures under 27-NH-13088096-MS.

Duties

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Duties At the full performance level, you will support Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSA) by providing a variety of legal assistance and office support services. Duties include:

• Examining, preparing and processing a variety of technical legal documents, e.g., complaints, motions, orders, answers, pleadings, subpoenas, and libels.
• 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.
• Assembling exhibits, affidavits, and other legal documents.
• Assembling and organizing files and records material for disposition or transfer to records depository.
• Maintaining calendar of assigned active cases.
• Tracking filing, hearing, and trials dates, and scheduling conference and interviews.
• Arranging travel by preparing itinerary and securing transportation and hotel reservations.
• 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.

Requirements Help

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

Qualifications GS-5: To be qualified at the GS-5 grade level in federal service, you must meet at least ONE of the following conditions. as defined below: Specialized Experience OR Education OR a Combination of Specialized Experience and Education as explained below.

Specialized Experience: At least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-4 grade level in federal service 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.

OR Education Successfully completed 4 years above the high school level.

OR Combination of 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 qualified at the GS-6 grade level, you must have at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level in federal service reviewing legal documents such as complaints, motions, orders, answers, pleadings, subpoenas, and libels 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 qualified at the GS-7 grade level, you must have at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 grade level in federal service providing trial support to attorneys by preparing complaints, motions, subpoenas, orders, or other hearing and/or trial documents accurately and in proper format; ver…