Attorney Advisor

Attorney Advisor Duties

The Attorney Advisor provides high-level legal and program analysis regarding the EPA program to various stakeholders within the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO), and expert legal and operational advice regarding the program to federal judges, court executives, court staff, and AO management. The work involves the production of a wide array of professionally written products and briefing materials. The incumbent also coordinates and collaborates with other AO and court staff on a wide range of issues that implicate the EPA program, building cross-functional teams and managing solutions. The duties of this position include, but are not limited to:

1. Providing policy guidance on how statutes and Judicial Conference of the United States (JCUS) policies relating to privacy and public access impact the appropriate availability and accessibility of dockets and documents on the judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system and its Public Access to Court Electronic Records service.
2. Serving as staff to the AO's EPA Working Group, including researching, writing, and editing meeting materials, presenting issues to the Working Group, preparing meeting minutes, and taking the lead on executing group recommendations where appropriate.
3. Serving as staff to the AO's EPA Public User Group, developing materials for the group's consideration, and helping EPA program staff ensure that group recommendations are vetted through appropriate judiciary decision-making channels and adopted recommendations are implemented.
4. Helping to build and maintaining an intra-agency team of subject-matter experts that can advise the program on proposed initiatives related to electronic public access for consideration by the JCUS and judiciary leaders and develop creative solutions for enhancing public access to electronic court records.
5. Assisting in analyzing and communicating about the impact of proposed legislation on judiciary public access policies and EPA services.
6. Working with AO staff, including the AO's Office of Public Affairs, to produce EPA program communication materials such as reports for the judiciary and Congress, responses to congressional and media inquiries, and articles for judiciary publications.
7. Collaborating with the AO's JCUS Committee staff to develop and present in writing EPA policy and pilot recommendations to Committee members.
8. Implementing and maintaining the operations of various public access programs approved by the JCUS, including the program to provide all designated judicial opinions to the Government Publishing Office for posting online and the judiciary's centralized service for academic researchers to request fee-exempt access to dockets and documents from multiple courts.
9. Producing recurring and ad hoc analyses and reports on various issues for both internal and external customers, including preparing materials for periodic financial reviews and annual reports to Congress.
10. Coordinating logistical activities for EPA advisory group meetings, including agenda development, the timeline for materials development, and members' travel Providing legal advice in coordination with the AO's Office of General Counsel to other Programs Division areas, i.e., records management and library services.