Legal Assistant (Office Automation)

Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and the Office of the U.S. Attorneys•Honolulu, HI

About The Position

This position serves as a senior legal assistant responsible for directly and independently supporting Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) by providing a wide variety of technical assistance services related to complex financial litigation actions and matters. The role involves providing substantive assistance in complex financial litigation, reviewing incoming materials, preparing legal actions, conducting research, obtaining and analyzing financial information, managing discovery and evidence, and tracking case status. Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as training and experience progress. This position is considered a career ladder opportunity, with a full performance level of GS-8. If selected at a lower grade level, promotion to the next grade level may be possible at the discretion of the supervisor, contingent upon meeting requirements, satisfactory performance, and availability of higher-level work. Promotion is not guaranteed.

Requirements

Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory pre-employment adjudication (fingerprint, credit and tax checks, and drug testing).
Continued employment is subject to a favorable adjudication of a background investigation.
Must be registered for Selective Service, if applicable.
May be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
Must meet all qualification requirements upon the closing date of this announcement.
To be eligible at the GS-5 level: 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 (GS-5): 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 (GS-5): 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.
To be eligible at the GS-6 level: at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 level.
Specialized experience (GS-6): providing routine debt identification and collection support. Examples include: using automated systems to conduct routine research, initiate documents for debt collection actions, track debtor accounts, communicating with debtors to present options for debt payments, and producing a variety of written documents and materials utilizing a wide range of office software applications ensuring proper format, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.
To be eligible at the GS-7 level: at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 level.
Specialized experience (GS-7): performing a variety of technical support work requiring knowledge of the laws, regulations, and requirements of financial litigation. Examples include: obtaining and analyzing financial information on debtors, initiating contact with debtors, conducting skip-tracing activity, communicating with debtors to present options for debt payments, and producing a variety of documents and materials needed for litigation utilizing a wide range of office software applications ensuring proper format, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.
To be eligible at the GS-8 level: at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level.
Specialized Experience (GS-8): performing technical work requiring knowledge of the litigation process and court proceeding associated with debt collection activities. Examples include: working in a collection environment obtaining and analyzing financial information to determine ability to pay; initiating contact with debtors concerning payment of their obligations, their ability to pay, and negotiating written payment schedules to assure successful debt collection; utilizing enforcement tools such as garnishments, liens, or writs of executions; reviewing debtor financial asset information to prepare payment plans; reconciling payment transactions with records to resolve inconsistencies; performing skip-tracing; locating assets; preparing a variety of legal documents; and maintaining files.
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.)

Nice To Haves

Eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees may receive selection priority through ICTAP.
Eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in the Department of Justice may receive selection priority through CTAP.

Responsibilities

Providing substantive assistance to AUSAs in complex financial litigation matters where the work is complicated by the requirement to independently develop, analyze and evaluate information regarding complex and/or unusual financial assets to assist AUSAs in cases.
Reviewing incoming material and determining the need for correspondence and legal documents such as motions, orders, pleadings, and subpoenas.
Preparing legal actions such as indictments, criminal complaints, search warrants, judgments, applications, notices, affidavits, summonses, grand jury subpoenas, rules to show cause, proofs of claim and satisfaction of judgment.
Conducting research of issues using various legal and non-legal databases and websites.
Obtaining and analyzing financial information on debtors to determine their present and future potential ability to pay.
Managing discovery and evidence in paper copies and electronically and may present the exhibits using trial presentation software in court.
Managing paper and electronic documents and evidence, correspondence, briefs, witness interviews, and other documentary materials.
Keeping track of case status and ensuring records are retained in a manner that will facilitate effective retrieval.