Legal Assistant (OA) Recent Graduate - Office of Chief Legal Advisor

Offices, Boards and Divisions•Washington, DC

19d

About The Position

As a Legal Assistant (Recent Graduate) in the Energy and Natural Resources Division, you will provide administrative and legal support to the team in the Office of the Chief Legal Advisor. The team provides legal advice supporting the Division’s internal operations, litigation, and other work. You will handle routine administrative tasks and special projects and support the Supervisory Administrative Specialist with general office management needs. The role includes creating, editing, and formatting documents and correspondence; conducting online research and organizing collected information; reviewing and assembling large volumes of documents for projects; maintaining files; entering data into databases; and arranging travel reservations and related paperwork. Recent graduates serve a one-year trial period. An Individual Development Plan must be completed and approved by the supervisor within 45 days of appointment, and a mentor must be assigned within 90 days. After successfully completing one year in the program, a participant may be converted to a term or permanent appointment if they complete at least one year of continuous service, at least 40 hours of formal interactive training, and demonstrate successful job performance. A graduate converted to a term appointment may later be converted non-competitively to a permanent competitive service position before the term expires.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship or nationality.
Successful completion of a background investigation, including pre-employment drug testing.
Selective Service registration, as applicable.
Serve a one-year trial period.
Maintain a bank account for direct deposit of salary.
Submit school transcripts; failure to do so results in an ineligible rating.
Meet the Recent Graduate eligibility requirement: complete a qualifying degree, certificate, or program within the previous two years, subject to the stated deadline. Applicants who completed an education program before October 2024 are ineligible, except qualifying veterans may have up to six years after degree completion due to military service obligations.
For GS-5 qualification, meet one of the following: one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to GS-4 applying standardized rules, processes, and procedures and commonly used reference sources and legal research tools to perform legal support work; four years of post-high-school education; or a combination of qualifying experience and education.
Specialized experience, if used, includes preparing correspondence and administrative forms using proper format, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Minimum typing speed of 40 words per minute and self-certification of typing proficiency on the occupational/assessment questionnaire.
Office automation skills, including database management and word processing software such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, and database applications.
An approved Individual Development Plan must be completed within 45 days of appointment, and a mentor must be assigned within 90 days of appointment.
If using experience to qualify, provide resume details supporting questionnaire responses, including the month and year each position began and ended.

Nice To Haves

Recent graduate in law, legal studies, or a related field.

Responsibilities

Provide administrative and legal support to the Energy and Natural Resources Division team in the Office of the Chief Legal Advisor.
Assist with routine administrative tasks and special projects.
Support the Supervisory Administrative Specialist with general office management needs.
Create, edit, and format documents and correspondence using word processing software.
Conduct online research and collect and sort information into logical formats.
Review and assemble large volumes of documents for project review.
Organize and maintain files.
Perform data entry in databases.
Arrange travel reservations and prepare necessary paperwork.