Duties

Summary

This position is located in the Regulatory and Legislative Affairs Division, Office of the Chief Counsel, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

You will serve as a staff attorney, principally responsible for assisting in the development of FMCSA regulations by serving as the legal counsel to agency regulatory development teams and by providing legal sufficiency review of rulemaking notices.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

The Attorney Advisor:

• Provides legal services for implementing and overseeing the national motor carrier safety policy and the national goals of the FMCSA to promote and regulate commercial motor vehicle safety in accordance with Title 49, U.S. Code.
• Provides legal opinions and correspondence interpreting statutes and regulations applicable to the motor carrier safety programs and policies of the FMCSA.
• Serves as legal counsel to the agency's regulatory development teams to assist in the formulation of legally sound and defensible regulations and to provide full legal sufficiency review of agency rulemaking work products.
• Provides legal support to FMCSA's Office of Governmental Affairs, including drafting and evaluating legislative proposals.
• Reviews and assesses for legal sufficiency policy guidance and correspondence prepared by agency program offices.
• Researches and prepares legal guidance and interpretive and administrative orders to implement the statutes and regulations applicable to the motor carrier safety program.
• Provides litigation support to the Department of Justice by assisting in the development of legal arguments and preparation of legal briefs for cases challenging agency regulatory actions.
• Handles other assignments of a comparable level of complexity and sensitivity as requested by the Chief Counsel, Deputy Chief Counsel, or Assistant Chief Counsel for Regulatory Affairs.

The ideal candidate will have a background handling regulatory issues, familiarity with enforcement and regulatory compliance issues relevant to regulated entities,an extensive working knowledge of the Administrative Procedure Act and related regulatory evaluation statues, Executive Orders and procedures, experience with regulatory and legislative drafting, strong legal research skills,proficiency in writing (drafting and editing) and oral communication and experience working in team driven environments.

If you are selected for an interview, a writing sample will be required.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - Some travel is required.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
14

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S.Citizen and eligible for consideration.
• Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.
• This is an Excepted Service position.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

This is an Excepted Service position.

• SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• ETHICS/CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT: All employees are subject to the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, set out in Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 2635, including restrictions on owning financial interests that may conflict with performance of their duties. Some employees, like those involved in contracting or regulating non-Federal entities, are subject to Executive Branch Financial Disclosure requirements set out in Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 263.
• TRIAL PERIOD: This is an Excepted Service position. This job will be filled by an alternative hiring process and is not in the competitive service. Applicants selected for an excepted service position may be subject to a two-year trial period.
• GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel. A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.

Qualifications

To qualify for an attorney position in the federal government, an applicant must have a law degree from an accredited school and must be a current member of the bar in good standing: In addition to meeting the basic requirements for the position, you must also meet the specific requirements for the grade at which you are requesting consideration.

To qualify for the GS-12, you must have:

• A second law degree (LL.M) AND at least one (1) year(s) of professional legal work experience of a progressively responsible nature.

OR

• At least one (1) year of professional legal work experience in handling regulatory, legislative or compliance matters and administrative law or litigation.

To qualify for the GS-13, you must have either:

• A second law degree (LL.M) AND at least two (2) years of professional legal work experience.

OR

• Experience - At least two (2) years of professional legal work experience in handling regulatory, legislative or compliance matter and administrative law or litigation.

To qualify for the GS-14, you must have either:

• A second law degree (LL.M) AND at least three (3) years of professional legal work experience of a progressively responsible nature.

OR

• At least three (3) years of professional legal work experience in handling regulatory, legislative or compliance matters and administrative law or litigation.

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.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

Students enrolled in a qualifying degree program can apply if the anticipated graduation date is within six months of closing date of the announcement. Graduation transcript must be received before start date.

Other applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

MANDATORY EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS:

Applicants must be citizens of the United States, possess a law degree (J.D. or equivalent) from an American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law school AND be an active member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of any state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Additional information

Displaced employees may be eligible for ICTAP or CTAP priority consideration. For more information, please review the OPM Employee's Guide to Career Transition .

EEO STATEMENT: The Department of Transportation (DOT) maintains a model federal work environment that is free of discrimination. DOT ensures equal employment opportunity for employees and applicants for employment, regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), genetic information, age, disability, sexual orientation, or protected activity.

This vacancy may be used by any DOT agency to fill similar positions within 90 days.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

For this announcement, all applicants will be reviewed to determine if they meet the basic qualifications for this position, specifically the specialized experience requirements.

Applicants will not be rated or ranked. All applications that are verified to meet the basic qualifications will be referred to the selecting official.

All answers provided in the on-line process must be substantiated by a resume. If, upon review, it is determined that your resume and/or supporting documents do not support your answer choices, your application may be removed from consideration.

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume/ application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level.

Applicants who advance through this process may be invited for one or more interviews and may be requested to provide additional information such as references, most recent performance appraisal, and writing samples (including a live writing exercise following the interview).

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT UNREQUESTED DOCUMENTATION. Resumes should only be submitted electronically as part of the application process and are not considered supplemental documents.

• RESUME - Needs to be created within USA Jobs Resume Builder. It must show relevant experience, education and fully support the required specialized experience.
• COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE
• PROOF OF BAR MEMBERSHIP
• TRANSCRIPTS - Verifying that you meet the stated education requirements for the series OR an SF-50 showing that you have already qualified and worked in the federal service in this series. The transcripts need not be official.
• COVER LETTER: (maximum 2 pages) The cover letter should specifically address why the applicant believes their experience, skills, and interest in the position qualify them for the position in light of the duties and qualifications described in this job announcement.
• VETERANS: Department of Transportation attorney positions are in the excepted service, not the competitive civil service. There is no formal rating system for applying veterans' preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of Transportation considers veterans' preference eligibility as a positive factor in the attorney hiring process. If you are eligible for veterans' preference in hiring, you are encouraged to include that information in your application along with supporting documentation, e.g., SF15, DD214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, or other supporting documentation.
• TRIAL PERIOD: This is an Excepted Service position. This job will be filled by an alternative hiring process and is not in the competitive service. Applicants selected for an excepted service position may be subject to a two-year trial period.

Unless the vacancy announcement specifically asks for examples of work products, writing samples, letters of reference, pictures, or training certificates, do NOT submit them to the Automated Staffing Office. They will not be forwarded to the official making the selection for this vacancy.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.