The Attorney Advisor provides legal counsel on the full range of Federal personnel issues, including general employee relations matters, suitability questions, disciplinary and performance-based actions, and litigation before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and other Federal forums. The Attorney Advisor may also provide legal counsel on Federal administrative laws, the Farm Credit Act of 1971, and other issues.
The Attorney Advisor provides legal counsel on the full range of Federal personnel issues, including general employee relations matters, suitability questions, disciplinary and performance-based actions, and litigation before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and other Federal forums. The Attorney Advisor may also provide legal counsel on Federal administrative laws, the Farm Credit Act of 1971, and other issues.
Salary range includes a 32.99% locality pay rate for McLean, Va. See the Additional Information section for the pay range by band level.
As an Attorney Advisor, typical duties include:
Basic Requirements: You must have a law degree (such as a J.D.) from a School of Law accredited by the American Bar Association
AND
You must be a member in good standing of the bar of a state or territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
In addition to meeting the basic requirements, you must meet the specialized experience statement(s) as outlined below:
To qualify for the VH-39 (GS-13 equivalent) band level: You must be a graduate from an accredited law school, be an active member in good standing of a qualifying legal bar and have three years of specialized experience equivalent to the VH-38 (GS-12) band level.
To qualify for the VH-40 (GS-14 equivalent) band level: You must be a graduate from an accredited law school, be an active member in good standing of a qualifying legal bar and have four years of specialized experience equivalent to the VH-39 (GS-13) band level.
Specialized Experience includes providing legal counsel to agency officials on Federal employment-related laws, personnel-related issues such as disciplinary and performance-based actions, and other employee relations matters; practicing before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB); and other Federal adjudicatory bodies and forums; legal analyses that are subject to statutory, regulatory, or time constraints; and drafting legal opinions, memoranda, and other documents.
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.
If this position has a positive education requirement as part of the Basic Qualification Requirements, you MUST submit copies of your transcript(s) that include: your name, the name of the educational institution, course titles, number of semester/quarter hours, grade(s) earned and degree(s) awarded. Unless otherwise stated: (1) official or unofficial transcripts are acceptable at the time of application, or (2) you may submit a list with all of your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. Educational institutions must be accredited by one of the accrediting agencies or associations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.
Pass/Fail Courses: If more than 10 percent of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) were taken on a pass/fail basis, your claim of superior academic achievement must be based upon class standing or membership in an honor society.
Graduate Education: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.
Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university.
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps including submitting an application and completing the application questionnaire. Your resume and supporting documentation will be used to determine whether you meet the job qualifications listed in this announcement. If you are minimally qualified for this job, your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses on the Occupational Questionnaire.
Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):
This is an excepted service position, and not covered by the customary civil service hiring procedures. Veterans' preference principals are applied as far as administratively feasible and as result all qualified applicants will be referred for consideration without regard to their preference status. Applicants who have veteran's preference eligibility are encouraged to include their information in their cover letters or resumes and attach supporting documentation to substantiate their preference.
To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. A complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration.
Once your online application is submitted you will receive a confirmation notification by email. Your application will be evaluated. You will receive another notification about the status of your application. You can check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USAJOBS account and selecting "Application Status." We recommend that you also opt to receive USAJOBS status update emails.
Once referred, you may be asked to complete a structured interview, written demonstration, and/or fit interview as part of the assessment process. Deliberate attempts to falsify information may be grounds for not selecting you or for dismissing you from the position/agency during the probationary period.
Please notify us if your contact information changes after the closing date of the announcement.
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
