The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecutes federal criminal offenses, seeks recovery of government funds fraudulently obtained, litigates affirmative civil fraud and enforcement actions, and defends the U.S. Government's interest in civil cases. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has staff in three offices: Harrisburg, Scranton, and Williamsport, and maintains an unstaffed office in Wilkes-Barre.

Duties

Provides a wide range of technical legal and administrative support to one or more Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs). Work involves creation and editing of legal documents. Work requires specialized knowledge of processes, procedures, and practices of legal support activities, as well as knowledge of administrative office skills, capability to provide automated litigation support, and ability to apply these skills to increase the effectiveness of the district. Provides training and support in legal databases and systems to other legal support personnel. Provides administrative support in conjunction with legal duties to assigned area. Typical assignments and duties will include: Prepares, proofreads and cite-checks legal documents. Assists with preparation of trial exhibits. Provides assistance to attorneys and automated litigation support staff in trial preparation and courtroom presentations. Utilizes various software applications and graphics hardware such as scanners and plotters. Conducts factual legal research using computerized databases and other sources. Provides legal and administrative support to multiple attorneys. Tracks appointments and cases, assists in receiving, evaluating, producing, and presenting discovery. Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory pre-employment adjudication. This includes fingerprint, credit and tax checks, and drug testing. Continued employment is subject to a favorable adjudication of a background investigation.
• You must be registered for Selective Service, if applicable.
• If selected, you may be required to complete a one year probationary period.
• Time-in-Grade: Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement.
• You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days after the closing date of this announcement and before placement in the position.

Qualifications

GS-09: To be eligible at the GS-09 level, you must have: 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level; or education; or a combination of both specialized experience and education as explained below. Specialized experience:One full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level performing the following types of duties: Providing legal and administrative support to one or more attorneys including examining, preparing, editing, cite-checking and processing legal documents, tracking cases, evaluating, producing and presenting discovery. Providing training and support in Legal databases and software (i.e. Eclipse, Relativity, Trial Director, etc). Assisting attorneys with trial preparation to include items such as subpoenas, trial exhibits, information requests, pleadings, and correspondence. Completion of factual legal research in legal and non-legal databases. Receiving visitors and telephone calls. Establishing and maintaining a variety of files. OR Education: A Master's, LL.B., J.D., Ph.D., or equivalent graduate degree in a related field (e.g., Criminal Justice, Law, Information Technology); or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree that is related to the position and demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position. Transcripts are required. OR Combining Education and Experience: A combination of specialized experience as described above and graduate education described above which when combined equal 100% of the requirements. (Please note: Only education in excess of 1 full year is creditable.) To calculate your percentage of education, first determine the total number of hours that exceed 18 semester hours. Then divide the total number of your excess semester hours by 18. To calculate your percentage of qualifying experience, divide your 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%. Transcripts are required. Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)-The CTAP provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in the Department of Justice with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your Department of Justice component 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 receive a score of 85 or better on established ranking criteria. You must provide a copy of your written notification of CTAP eligibility with your application. Additional information about CTAP eligibility is at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. Noncompetitive Appointment Authorities Links: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/competitive-hiring/#url=Types-of-Appointments

Education

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 criteria, see http://www.ed.gov
OR
Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the above education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to timely provide such evidence by submitting proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency with your application materials. More information may be found at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. All documentation must be in English or include an English translation.

Contacts

• Address Middle District of Pennsylvania 235 N. Washington Ave Scranton, PA 18503 US
• Name: Christine Osborne
• Phone: (570) 207-4809
• Email: [email protected]