Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, seeks enthusiastic individuals to serve taxpayers fairly and with integrity by providing correct and impartial interpretation of the internal revenue laws and the highest quality legal advice and representation for the IRS. Please click "Learn more about this agency" to find out more about Chief Counsel's various offices, to view some of the workplace attributes that Chief Counsel's workforce rates most favorably, and to hear from employees themselves.

Duties

The Senior Level Counsel serves as a confidential advisor to the Associate Chief Counsel, Procedure and Administration (PA) on a variety of matters, including complex litigation, federal tax matters, and as the Chief Counsel's primary attorney contact and leading expert in electronic litigation. Serves as program manager and technical senior advisor to the Associate Chief Counsel on a broad array of activities designed to fulfill Counsel's responsibilities to handle complex litigation and to provide legal support to the Internal Revenue Service, including overseeing all facets of electronic litigation. Serves as the Office's attorney representative and liaison with the IRS, and the Departments of Justice and Treasury on significant matters involving electronic litigation and electronic discovery. Acts as a personal consultant to executives on a variety of sensitive and extremely complex legal, technical, and tax matters in their assigned area of expertise. Assists the executive in the formulation of legal policies and programs for the operation of the Associate office, including those relating to electronic litigation, complex litigation, and federal tax matters, and performs special assignments of the highest complexity and impact of a case or project nature. The incumbent serves as an expert on complex litigation and in the management and retrieval of electronically stored information and other Chief Counsel records of significance to the electronic discovery process. This includes serving as the point of contact and coordinator in electronic discovery and information governance projects, including the collection, processing, review, and production of electronically stored information. Major duties and responsibilities include but not limited to: Acts as legal and technical expert to the Office executives on the most difficult, important, and complex professional legal matters arising in the administration of the Internal Revenue laws and in related litigation. Manages highly complex and significant special projects including complex tax litigation; selecting and reviewing proposals, monitoring work group needs and progress, facilitating and expediting recommendations regarding these matters through the decision-making process. Serves as an office expert on Procedure and Administration's areas of tax litigation and as the primary liaison to Division and Associate Chief Counsel offices in the coordination and direction of activities to support IRS needs and objectives. Serves as primary attorney liaison to Division and Associate Chief Counsel Offices, the IRS, and the Departments of Justice and Treasury in the coordination and direction of electronic litigation; handles electronic discovery in complex federal tax matters and other matters involving the IRS. Develops, implements, and updates policies and procedures regarding electronic litigation, information governance, electronic record retention, storage, and retrieval issues, and litigation holds. Takes the lead on the largest, most complex projects and policy proposals in the Office. Interfaces with IRS Information Technology on data collection for tax cases and other matters and determines parameters for data collection. Outlines requirement needs to the Business Systems Planning Division (BSP) on software, hardware and equipment requirements for electronic discovery and electronic litigation support to ensure Counsel is using state of the art, innovative and cost-effective technology for all aspects of electronic litigation.

Requirements

• Refer to "Additional Information"
• Click "Print Preview" to review the entire announcement before applying.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National

Qualifications

To qualify for this position of Senior Level Counsel (Procedure and Administration) you must meet the following requirements: Possess at least the first professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association; AND Applicants must be an active member in good standing of the bar of a State, U.S. Commonwealth, U.S. territory, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Desired Education/Experience: An LL.M. in Taxation is desired but not required. 7 years of professional legal tax experience is desired. To meet the minimum requirements for a Senior Level position, candidates must be a recognized subject matter expert with directly related experience. Typically, experience of this nature will have been gained at the GS-15 grade level or its equivalent in Federal service. Candidates must demonstrate their experience in the narrative responses to the Mandatory Technical Qualifications; and this experience must have been at a sufficiently high level of difficulty to clearly show the candidate possesses the required subject matter expertise and technical qualifications set forth below. This specialized experience should also be reflected within the resume. 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. Mandatory Technical Qualifications (MTQs): All candidates must show evidence of the following mandatory technical competencies to meet basic qualifications for this position. The narrative statements should demonstrate your specialized knowledge and technical competence. Please give concrete examples of your experience and demonstrate the complexity of the knowledge and skills you possess. You should address each MTQ separately, with the total narrative not exceeding ten pages. Mandatory Demonstrated experience and expert knowledge of the rules of practice and procedure for the United States Tax Court, the United States District Courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the United States Courts of Appeals to serve as a nationwide authority on complex tax and general litigation. Comprehensive in-depth knowledge and the understanding of an expert in electronic litigation including the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, discovery and production standards and best industry practices as they relate to electronic litigation; and in-depth knowledge of electronic discovery systems and electronic search software including document management software, document scanning software, courtroom presentation systems, case collaboration tools, cloud computing systems relevant to information management and litigation, proprietary software, etc. Extensive knowledge of the legal requirements for preserving, collecting, preparing, producing, and obtaining electronically stored information. Demonstrated ability and highly skilled in preparing/writing legal tax documents ranging from complex tax documents designed for legal practitioners to non-technical/educational materials targeted for more general use. Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with legal staff on the most complex legal issues and to enable attorneys to understand the electronic litigation and electronic discovery and the legal requirements relating to the storage, preservation, retrieval, analysis and production of electronically stored information. (Note: Failure to address these factors will result in your application being rated ineligible.) Narrative responses to the MTQs and Desirable Qualifications should not be more than two pages for each. Please provide responses to MTQs and Desirable Qualifications each on separate sheets of paper.

Education

For positions with an education requirement, or if you are qualifying for this position by substituting education or training for experience, submit a copy of your transcripts or equivalent. An official transcript will be required if you are selected.

A college or university degree generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools which meet these criteria, please refer to Department of Education Accreditation page.

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. If you are qualifying based on foreign education, you must submit proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Office of Chief Counsel, IRS Staffing and Classification Branch 1111 Constitution Ave, NW Washington, DC 20224 US
• Name: Carrie Middleton
• Phone: 202-317-6578
• Email: [email protected]