Paralegal Specialist

About the role

ICE OPLA is the largest legal department within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with more than 3,000 attorneys and 500 support staff working nationwide in 143 offices located within nine Regions throughout the United States. Pursuant to statute, OPLA serves as the exclusive representative of DHS in removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review litigating cases involving criminal aliens, terrorists, human rights violators, and other priority aliens. OPLA also provides a full range of legal services to all ICE programs and offices.

Responsibilities

• Researching laws, regulations, court decisions, opinions, legislative history, and other legal authorities and analyzing and applying such findings to support attorneys, including using automated legal research tools where appropriate.
• Assisting attorneys in preparing for and representing the United States Government in immigration proceedings before immigration judges or other tribunals, frequently involving evidentiary, procedural, and substantive issues in pending cases, and facilitating communication between attorneys and clients, witnesses, or other parties.
• Reviewing case-related documents for conformity with standardized formatting, grammar, legal citations, and practice manuals prior to signature and issuance by attorneys.
• Monitoring and updating databases and repositories using an electronic case management system or similar system.
• Assisting in preparing correspondence, motions, briefs, case summaries, and other written work product in draft and final form; and affidavits, discovery requests, responses, evidentiary packages, and other legal documents for immigration proceedings and federal litigation.
• Compiling, summarizing, and analyzing case information, statistics, or other relevant data for attorneys or to support leadership's decision-making and performance tracking.
• Managing calendars, deadlines, and other logistical aspects of legal work.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.

You must successfully pass a background investigation.

You must successfully pass a drug screen.

Males born after 12/31/59 must certify registration with Selective Service.

Qualifications

Please limit your resume to 2 pages. If more than 2 pages are submitted, only the first 2 pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications.

In describing your experience, please be clear and specific. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience.

Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.

Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Qualification claims will be subject to verification.