The NASA Office of the General Counsel seeks enthusiastic, client-focused, and public service-minded attorneys to join its Goddard Space Flight Center office. Goddard is NASA's oldest space flight complex and is home to the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, among many other missions. You will join an experienced team of professionals and gain a broad exposure to NASA's diverse missions while practicing in the areas of contracts, partnerships, ethics, and employment, among others.

Duties

Duties described below are at the full-performance level. Duties assigned at a lower grade level will be of more limited scope, performed with less independence and limited complexity; duties will be commensurate with the grade of selected employee. Performs legal activities designed to assure adequacy and propriety in Center activities and documentation and to protect legal and financial rights of the Government and parties affected by NASA activities. Prepares for cases before the Merit Systems Protection Board, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Board of Contract Appeals, Federal District Courts etc. Represents NASA before Administrative Boards and Commissions. Reviews of a variety of legal and administrative documents for legal sufficiency. Prepares and reviews legislation, reports, and statements to be submitted from the Office of the General Counsel. Conducts research on legal issues, preparing drafts of pleadings, motions, interrogatories, fact finding, and other related documents. Analyzes factual issues and performs legal analyses based on research and experience with statutes, judicial, and administrative opinions, policies, and practices in both the government and private sectors. Reviews contracts or agreements between the agency and individuals, organizations, or institutions, government and private. Legal documents include, but are not limited to, contracts, memoranda of understanding, grants, and agreements. Prepares precedent-establishing opinions and office memoranda documenting major legislation and other legal matters. Legally opine on proposed legislation or policies; drafting or reviewing decisions for consideration and adoption by agency officials; and making recommendations for disposition of cases.

Requirements

• This position is open to U.S. citizens, nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
• Position subject to pre-employment background investigation.
• You must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
• If selected, you will be required to complete a financial disclosure statement.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements for all grade levels: You must possess a Juris Doctor (J.D.) or Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from a full course of study at a law school accredited by the American Bar Association; be an active member in good standing of the bar of any state or territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and have been admitted to practice law before a state or federal court. To qualify at the GS-11: you must meet the basic requirement for all grade levels (as outlined above). In addition, one of the following requirements must be satisfied: 1. One year of professional legal experience equivalent to the GS-09 level in the Federal service. OR 2. The second professional law degree (LL.M.) provided it required 1 academic year of graduate study. An academic year of graduate study is the number of credit hours that the school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours should be considered as 1 academic year of full-time study. OR 3. Superior law student work or activities as demonstrated by one of the following: a. Academic standing in the upper third of the attorney's law school graduating class. b. Work or achievement of significance on one of the attorney's law school's official law reviews or journals. c. Special high-level honors for academic excellence in law school (e.g., membership in the Order of the Coif, winning of a moot court competition, or membership on the moot court team that represents the attorney's law school in competition with other law schools). d. Full-time or continuous participation in a legal aid program as opposed to one-time, intermittent, or casual participation. e. Significant summer law office clerk experience. f. Other evidence of clearly superior accomplishment or achievement. Your resume must include a clear and detailed narrative description, in your own words, of how you meet the required specialized experience. Experience statements copied from a position description, vacancy announcement or other reference material constitutes plagiarism and may result in disqualification and losing consideration for the job.

Education

U.S. degrees must have been awarded from colleges or universities that are accredited by recognized accrediting organizations. For a list of schools that meet this criteria, go to http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/.

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. These education credentials must be 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. For further information, visit: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

All degrees must have been received in the year of, or any year subsequent to the original date of accreditation.

Contacts

• Address Goddard Space Flight Center 8800 Greenbelt Rd Greenbelt, MD 20771 US
• Name: NASA Shared Services Contact Center
• Phone: 1-877-677-2123
• Email: [email protected]