Clarification from the agency

Open to the Public-All US Citizens

This position is for a Deputy Associate General Counsel for Trial and Enforcement in the Office of General Counsel, who will supervise a professional staff of senior attorney-advisers and serve as a litigation subject matter expert/authority with broad responsibility for advising on trial court matters in close coordination with the Associate General Counsel for Litigation, Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, General Counsel, and U.S. Department of Justice. 

As Deputy Associate General Counsel for Trial and Enforcement, the incumbent assumes full responsibility for providing litigation legal advice, legal opinions and designated agency representation before government agencies; assists U.S. Department of Justice attorneys in representation before the Federal and state trial courts (which involves developing approaches, arguments and strategies relating to litigation, trials and hearings, many of which are often precedent-setting and highly-technical, have unique legal features, require creative approaches, and may be of national importance).

This senior attorney is a critical member of the Office of General Counsel with wide and varied duties to help best protect the agency’s interests in litigation and related contexts, including:

• Serves as a principal trial attorney for trial court proceedings in which the Commission is a party or otherwise has an interest, including suits initiated to enforce Commission orders imposing monetary forfeitures. 
• Supervises, and on occasion personally handles, the litigation of all disputes involving Commission personnel, employment, and labor relations matters filed in federal district court (in conjunction with attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice), as well as those brought before administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and hearings before labor arbitrators under the FCC’s collective bargaining agreement.
• Supervises the preparation of responses to third party requests for information from the Commission, including responses to subpoenas duces tecum and requests under the FCC’s Touhy regulations. In that connection, and more generally, oversees the production of documents and assertions of privilege on the Commission’s behalf in litigation.  Oversees, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys serving as trial counsel, litigation over requests to the Commission under the Freedom of Information Act.

The incumbent also takes the lead in (a) providing legal review and advice on diverse and complex litigation and related Federal and state statutes and regulations, policy statements, court cases, and actions to ensure well-reasoned and legally sufficient advice to agency managers; (b) reviewing and drafting regulatory and legislative initiatives as directed by the Associate General Counsel for Litigation; (c) preparing complex opinions, recommendations, and legal memoranda; (d) reviewing for legal sufficiency and accuracy materials created by Litigation Division staff and other FCC bureaus and offices; and (e) representing the Office of General Counsel at meetings, hearings, and conferences.  He/she reports directly to the Associate General Counsel for Litigation.

Conditions of employment

• Bar Membership Documentation Required Upon Selection.
• Education-Transcripts Required Upon Interview
• US Citizenship.
• Suitable for employment as determined by a background investigation.
• Serve a probationary period of one year, if applicable.
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.
• Financial disclosure statement may be required upon assuming the position.
• Current FCC employees must provide SF-50 verifying grade & status.
• Current/former federal employees must provide SF-50 to verify grade, status

Please note your resume must thoroughly support your responses to the vacancy questions.  Your resume is an integral part of the process for determining if you meet the basic qualifications of the position and determining if you are to be among the best qualified.

ALL CURRENT/FORMER FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND CURRENT FCC EMPLOYEES MUST provide a legible Personnel Action, SF-50, that verifies your status and highest permanently held grade.  If an SF-50 is not submitted, the application will be rated as ineligible.

CURRENT FCC EMPLOYEES-To request a copy of your SF-50 please send an email to PersonnelRecordsRequest@fcc.gov

Qualifications

Applicants must meet eligibility and qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Current Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Professional law experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position and is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.

In order to be deemed as "BEST QUALIFIED" candidates must meet both the educational requirements AND the Specialized Experience.

A. Education

You must meet the minimum basic educational requirements for Attorney positions. Education requirements include:  a professional law degree JD, LL.B., and/or LL.M. 

NOTE-If you do not provide a transcript at the time of application, a transcript will be required to be provided at the time of selection.

AND

B. Specialized Experience

Applicants must have a minimum of four years of professional law experience, and a minimum of one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-14 in the Federal service. For this position, specialized experience includes the following:

1) Experience providing expert litigation and legal advice to high level, senior management officials.
2) Experience developing approaches, arguments and strategies relating to litigation, trials and hearings (i.e., which are often precedent setting, highly technical, have unique legal features, require unusual provisions and may be of national importance).
3) Experience presenting an organization's or an agency's position and representing an agency or an organization during hearings and before trial courts.
4) Experience serving as a principal trial attorney for trial court proceedings.

PART-TIME OR UNPAID EXPERIENCE:  Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

All candidates will be considered without regard to political or religious affiliation, marital status, race, color, sex, national origin, non-disqualifying physical or mental handicap, age, or any other non-merit factor.  THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

All applicants will be rated on the extent and quality of experience and education relevant to the duties of the position.  Applicants who do not submit a supporting resume will be rated ineligible. 

There are several parts to the application process that affect the overall evaluation of your application including:

1.  the core questions
2.  supplemental documentation (e.g., SF-50, transcripts, bar membership); and
4.  your resume.

Applicants will be rated ineligible, if they do not respond to job specific questions provide supplemental documents and submit resume.  For more information, please click on Rating Process

You will be evaluated for this position on the following Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other characteristics (KSAOs):

1) Ability to supervise, lead, manage or oversee Trial Attorneys and any/all related work.

2) Ability to perform highly complex professional litigation legal work.  

3) Ability to provide legal oversight over the development, revision, and monitoring of the implementation of complex litigation policies, processes and procedures; and setting of long-range goals and objectives to meet changes in legislation or other related regulations, laws or rules.

4) Ability to provide expert legal interpretations, judgment, logic and policy application in dealing with both civil and criminal laws of the United States and applicable statutes and policies.