Legal Assistant (Office Automation)

Legal Assistance Position

If selected for this position, you will join a well-respected team in the Asset Recovery Section that is responsible for Financial Litigation. Typical duties will include:

• Providing a variety of legal assistance and office support services to Attorneys;
• Examining, preparing and processing a variety of technical legal documents which are characteristically voluminous and complex in format;
• Reviewing incoming material and determining the needs for assembly and preparation of a variety of legal documents, e.g., complaints, motions, orders, answers, pleadings, subpoenas, and libels;
• Initiating contact with debtors concerning payment of their obligations, their ability to pay and negotiating written payment schedules to assure successful collection of debts;
• Conducting legal research and searching legal precedent in indices and computerized legal reference systems and listing cited cases, opinions and miscellaneous references in briefs;
• Reviewing, evaluating and verifying debtors account status and payment transactions;
• Interpreting and enforcing judgments in criminal cases, and independently performing all functions to collect amounts imposed as a result of the prosecution of criminal cases;
• Aiding in preparing and organizing evidence for production as discovery and for use in trial;
• Producing a variety of written documents and materials using a wide range of office software applications.

Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

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. You must meet all qualification requirements upon the closing date of this announcement.

To be eligible at the GS-7 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 level. Specialized experience is defined as experience providing trial support to attorneys by preparing complaints, motions, subpoenas, orders, or other hearing and/or trial documents accurately and in proper format; verifying citations and statutory references contained in legal documents; assisting with discovery, hearing or trial preparation by performing duties such as compiling trial notebooks, assembling jury instructions, and compiling witness and exhibit lists; and using software applications and legal and non-legal databases to produce legal related reports and documents, conduct factual research, develop tables of contents and indices to briefs, and prepare courtroom presentations, provides technical processing activities associated with debt collection for criminal and/or civil debts; and drafts and/or prepares letters, forms and reports necessary to initiate the collection of debts. To be qualified, you must type at least 40 words per minute based on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors. (A typing test may later be required.)