Skip to main content
U.S. flag
Back to results
 

Legal Administrative Specialist

Department of Justice
Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and the Office of the U.S. Attorneys
District of South Carolina

Summary

The United States Attorney's Office for South Carolina's mission is to investigate, prosecute and deter violations of federal statutes, enforce and represent the interests of the United States in civil litigation, uphold civil, constitutional and victims' rights, and foster partnerships with other federal, state and local government agencies and community groups.

Overview

Help
Accepting applications
Open & closing dates
02/11/2026 to 02/25/2026
Salary
$61,722 to - $97,087 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 9 - 11
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Florence, SC
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
11 - The full performance level of this position is GS-11.
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
Yes
Position sensitivity and risk
Special-Sensitive (SS)/High Risk
Trust determination process
Financial disclosure
No
Bargaining unit status
No
Announcement number
26-SC-12880716-DE
Control number
857175400

Duties

Help

This Legal Administrative Specialist provides a range of legal support services to one or more Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) involved in a wide variety of criminal litigation matters.

If selected for this position, you will join a well-respected team that is responsible for providing Legal Administrative Specialist support in the U.S. Attorney's Office, South Carolina, located in Florence, South Carolina, focusing in the areas of litigation support, automated litigation support, and evidence management support.

Typical work assignments will include:

  • Providing technical guidance to litigation teams on legal automation requirements, litigation support systems, and technology solutions to enhance trial preparation and courtroom presentations.
  • Analyzing litigation support needs and developing strategies to manage complex case materials and meet case objectives.
  • Assisting attorneys in organizing, scanning, indexing, coding, and managing large volumes of documents in litigation databases for efficient retrieval.
  • Designing and executing computerized trial presentation programs and creating demonstrative exhibits using tools such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Trial Director, Eclipse, and Everlaw.
  • Preparing and maintaining trial-related documents, including witness lists, exhibit lists, jury instructions, and subpoenas, in compliance with the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

  • You must be a United States Citizen or National to apply for this position.
  • Selective Service: Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see http://www.sss.gov/).
  • All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
  • You must successfully pass a background investigation. This may include a credit check, a review of financial issues, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs.
  • A probationary period may be required.
  • A pre-employment drug test will be required.
  • If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application.
  • Must provide resume and supporting documents (See required documents).
  • You must meet all qualifications requirements by the closing date of the announcement.
  • As needed, additional positions may be filled using this announcement.
  • Eligible candidates may be offered a superior qualifications appointment per agency policy and federal regulations, based on exceptional skills, experience, and job-related qualifications.

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: To be considered minimally qualified for this position, you must demonstrate that you have the required specialized experience and/or education for the respective grade level in which you are applying:

To qualify at the GS-09 level, you must have:

Specialized Experience: At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors) performing (05) of the (07) duties listed below:

  • Providing routine litigation assistance, such as arranging and managing case files.
  • Providing litigation support to attorneys by preparing exhibits, assembling trial notebooks, and compiling witness and exhibit lists, as well as developing computerized trial presentations and exhibits.
  • Verifying legal citations.
  • Conducting research, analysis, and evaluation of data.
  • Utilizing automated legal research tools and public information databases to perform basic case-specific legal research.
  • Drafting a variety of legal documents.
  • Managing discovery materials.
OR

Education: One of the following types of education in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Law, Information Technology): a master's degree or equivalent graduate degree; OR 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR
LL. B or J.D., if related. Education at the graduate level must be in an accredited college or university and must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position.

OR

Combination of Experience and Education: Graduate level education can be used if, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of the first full year can be used in this calculation. To calculate your percentage of graduate education, first determine the total number of graduate level hours that exceed 18 semester hours (or your school's definition of one year of graduate study), then divide the total number of your excess graduate semester hours by 18 (or your school's definition of one year of graduate study). To calculate your percentage of specialized experience, divide the total number of months of qualifying experience by 12. Now, add the two percentages together. The sum of the percentages must equal at least 100%.

To qualify at the GS-11 level, you must have:

Specialized Experience:
At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 level in the Federal service performing (obtained in either the public or private sectors) (5) of the (6) duties listed below:
  • Providing technical support to litigation teams in a legal environment, including advising on legal automation requirements and system capabilities.
  • Managing and processing electronic discovery materials.
  • Assessing litigation support needs and developing or recommending strategies to address case requirements.
  • Utilizing automated litigation support tools or related software to organize large volumes of case information for retrieval, create computerized trial presentations, and index digital evidence.
  • Researching, analyzing, and summarizing pertinent legal precedents.
  • Preparing and maintaining a wide range of trial-related documents.
OR

Education: One of the following types of education in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Law, Information Technology): a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; OR 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR LL.M., if related. Education at the graduate level must be in an accredited college or university and must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position.

OR

Combination of Experience and Education: Graduate level education can be used if, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of the first two years can be used in this calculation. To calculate your percentage of graduate education, first determine the total number of graduate level hours that exceed 36 semester hours (or your school's definition of two years of graduate study), then divide the total number of your excess graduate semester hours by 18 (or your school's definition of one year of graduate study). To calculate your percentage of specialized experience, divide the total number of months of qualifying experience by 12. Now, add the two percentages together. The sum of the percentages must equal at least 100%.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). For more information on the qualifications for this position, click here.

Education

If you are claiming education as any part of your qualifications for this position, you must submit an official transcript, unofficial transcript, or a list including courses, grades earned, completion dates, and quarter and semester hours earned.

All academic degrees and coursework must be completed at a college or university that has obtained accreditation or pre-accreditation status from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools that meet this criterion, see https://www.ed.gov/

Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that 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. Failure to provide such documentation with your application will result in lost consideration. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.In addition, when reviewing applicant's transcripts, assumptions will not be made. Applicants MUST state which coursework is relevant.

Additional information

Payment of relocation expenses will not be authorized.

Background Investigation: To ensure the accomplishment of its mission, the Department of Justice requires each and every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo and successfully complete a background investigation for a clearance as a condition of placement in this Special Sensitive/High Risk position. This review includes financial issues such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) provides eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your agency has notified you in writing that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your ICTAP eligibility; 2) you apply under the instructions in this announcement; and 3) you are found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and rate equivalent to the Highly Qualified or better category using established category rating criteria. Additional information about ICTAP eligibility, click here.

The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your agency has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your CTAP eligibility, 2) you apply under the instructions in this announcement, and 3) you are found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and rate equivalent to the Highly Qualified or better category using established category rating criteria. Additional information about CTAP eligibility, click here.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments: Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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

Promotion Potential (Career Ladder) Statement: This position is being filled at the (GS-09) level with promotion potential to the (GS-11). Promotion or assignment into this career ladder position does not guarantee future advancement. Advancement to the (GS-11) is not automatic and depends on the individual's ability to perform the higher-grade duties, the availability of a sufficient quantity of higher-grade work that would constitute a major duty, and management's decision to assign these higher-grade duties to the employee.

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

  • Attention to Detail
  • Customer Service
  • Decision Making
  • Flexibility
  • Integrity/Honesty
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Learning
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Reasoning
  • Self-Management
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Teamwork


The USA Hire Assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

To preview the application questionnaire, click the following link: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12880716

Your application will be evaluated and rated under DOJ's Category Rating and Selection Procedures and placed in one of three categories: Best Qualified, Highly Qualified, or Qualified.

Best Qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position;

Highly Qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in some, but not all, of the requirements of the job;

Qualified - applicants possessing experience and/or education that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors.

Names of all candidates in the best qualified category will be sent to the hiring official for employment consideration (unless a sufficient number of qualified veterans are found - in which only those names will be initially certified). Candidates within the best qualified category who are eligible for veteran preference will receive selection priority over non-veteran preference eligibles.

Your session is about to expire!

Your USAJOBS session will expire due to inactivity in 8 minutes. Any unsaved data will be lost if you allow the session to expire. Click the button below to continue your session.