Attorney Advisor

Summary

This position is located in the Office of General Counsel, National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment). The incumbent serves as an Attorney Advisor and a principal subject-matter attorney for federal financial assistance and the legal development and implementation of the Arts Endowment programs.

Who May Be Considered:

U.S. Citizens

View common definitions of terms found in this announcement.

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Duties

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In this position, you will serve as an Attorney Advisor. Typical work assignments include:

• Serving as a legal advisor to leadership on grants, cooperative agreements, and other federal financial assistance, including the design, development, implementation, administration and oversight of agency programs.
• Advising leadership and program officials on whether proposed activities comply with statutory authority and agency appropriations.
• Interpreting and applying federal frameworks, including the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act and the OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), appropriations provisions and other statutes, regulations, executive orders, government-wide requirements and agency policies governing agency financial assistance.
• Providing legal review of public-facing materials, including program solicitations, application guidelines, eligibility requirements, and award terms and conditions.
• Counseling program grants-management, budget, civil rights and other agency personnel-on applicant eligibility, cost allowability, and compliant merit-review panel procedures.
• Advising on complex or sensitive award administration issues, such as changes in project scope, budget revisions, subawards, recipient noncompliance, suspension, termination, and intellectual property provisions.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National
• Suitable for Federal employment, determined by a background investigation
• May be required to successfully complete a probationary period
• Selective Service registration required.
• All employees are required to participate in Direct Deposit/ Electronic Funds Transfer for salary payments.
• All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement and clearly documented in your resume.
• Relocation expenses are not authorized. Other recruitment incentives may be authorized.
• In accordance with Executive Order 14170, applicants are encouraged to respond to the four short, free-response, essay questions in the questionnaire. Answers to these questions are not scored or rated.
• Your answers to the essay questions will be reviewed by the hiring manager and agency leadership if you are referred for selection consideration.

Qualifications

Applicants must demonstrate that they meet the Basic Requirements AND Minimum Qualification requirements as noted below.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

1. You must be a graduate of an accredited law school with an LLB or JD from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) a full course of study in a school of law accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). (Must provide Transcripts)
2. You must be currently in good standing with the Bar of a state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

AND

Minimum Qualifications:

GS-13: You qualify for the GS-13 grade level (starting salary $121,785.00) if you have at least 1.5 years of professional experience acquired after being admitted to the Bar, one of which was specialized experience at, or equivalent to, the level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent at GS-12 level in Federal service. Examples of such specialized experience include:

1. Providing legal advice concerning grants, cooperative agreements, or other financial-assistance programs; and,
2. Counseling program officials concerning the legal design, development, implementation, administration, or enforcement of such programs.

OR

GS-14: You qualify for the GS-14 grade level (starting salary $143,913) if you have at least at least 2.5 years of professional experience acquired after being admitted to the Bar, one of which was specialized experience at, or equivalent to, the level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent at GS-13 level in Federal service. Examples of such specialized experience include:

1. Providing legal advice concerning grants, cooperative agreements, or other financial-assistance programs; and
2. Counseling Program officials concerning the legal design, development, implementation, administration, or enforcement of such programs.

NOTE: Your resume must explicitly indicate how you meet this requirement, otherwise you will be found ineligible.

In order to qualify for this position, your resume must provide sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the specific position for which you are being considered.

Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. Your resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the advertised grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer and part time experience. You must clearly identify the duties and responsibilities in each position held and the dates worked and total number of hours per week.

National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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.

Current or Former Political Appointees : The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Qualifications Must Be Met The qualification requirements listed above must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

Education must be from an accredited institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For additional information, refer to the U.S. Department of Education web site at a copy of your college transcript (unofficial is acceptable) or you may submit a list with all of your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the courses.

Foreign Education: Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. For example, specific courses accepted for college-level credit by an accredited U.S. college or university, or foreign education evaluated by an organization recognized for accreditation by the Department of Education as education equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. college or university. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications for more information.

All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.

Additional information

Identification of promotion potential in this announcement does not constitute a commitment or an obligation of management to promote the employee selected at some future date.

Additional selections may be made from this vacancy.

VETERANS PREFERENCE : If claiming 5-point veteran preference you MUST submit copy number 4 of the DD-214. If you are claiming 10-point veteran preference you MUST submit an SF-15, Application for 10-point Veteran's Preference AND all other required documents in order to be granted the preference. All documents must be received by 11/05/2026. Additional information on veteran's preference is available at:

If you are selected for this Federal position, you will be required to complete a "Declaration of Federal Employment", (OF-306), prior to being appointed to determine your suitability for Federal employment and to authorize a background investigation. Failure to answer all questions truthfully and completely or providing false statements on the application may be grounds for not hiring you or dismissing you after you begin work, and may be punishable by fine or imprisonment (U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1001).

The application contains information subject the Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579, 5 U.S.C. 552a). The information issued will be used to determine qualifications for employment, and is authorized under Title 5 U.S.C. Section 3302 and 3361.

Recruitment methods and selection procedures will based solely on merit after fair and open competition, and will be made without regard to political, religious, or labor organization affiliation or non-affiliation, marital status, race, color, sex, national origin, non-disqualifying disability, sexual-orientation or age.

If you are unable to apply online please contact View email address on click.appcast.io.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply online if at all possible. Applying online, through your USAJOBS account, will expedite the application process and allow you to check your application status as well as verify the documentation submitted with your application.

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.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.