Criminal Legal Assistant (Office Automation)

About the role

The Criminal Division handles a wide variety of investigations and prosecutions, including public corruption, anti-terrorism, violent crime associated with narcotics and street gangs, health care fraud, and cybercrime, among many others. You will be supporting Criminal Division Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) who prosecute cases from investigation through trial, appeal, and post-conviction litigation.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.
• To be eligible at the GS-6 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 level.
• To be eligible at the GS-7 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 level.

GS-5: 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: Specialized experience is defined as experience 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: 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.)

Qualifications

• Conditions of employment: 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 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.
• 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.

Benefits

• The Department of Justice offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, paid vacation; sick leave; holidays; telework; life insurance; health benefits; and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System.

Equal Opportunity

• The United States government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor.