Duties

Summary

This position is located in the Division of Legislation and Regulations, Office of Chief Counsel, Maritime Administration (MARAD).

This position is established to provide advice and representation on a full range of legal issues relating to the Office of Chief Counsel.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

As an Attorney-Advisor, you will:

• Serve as primary day-to-day point of contact for MARAD's ethics program.
• Draft and reviews documents for consistency with all applicable authorities and requirements to include: ethics guidance, financial disclosure reports, analysis and advice, directives, correspondence, reports, memoranda, Federal Register Notices, and other such documents.
• Conduct legal research regarding matters before the Office, including but not limited to: review of relevant regulations, legislative histories, case law, administrative records, canons of statutory construction, and the laws of the United States.
• Participate in review of procurement contracts, cooperative agreements, grants, financial assistance agreements, interagency agreements, loan guarantees, charters, operating agreements, or non-procurement contracts as assigned.
• Draft and presents ethics training to MARAD employees.
• Review financial disclosure reports, analyze potential conflicts of interest, and maintains records related to such activities.
• Provide legal advice on matters of interest to MARAD, as assigned.
• Directly and actively participate in briefings for Agency senior leadership, including the Administrator and Deputy Administrator.
• Represent the Office in meetings within MARAD, the Department of Transportation, the Office of Government Ethics, and other Government agencies and with transportation industry stakeholders.
• Provide oral and written advice, analysis, interpretations, and guidance on complex and sensitive legal and policy matters both for individual questions and as related to MARAD programs and operations.

The ideal candidate for this position is a highly motivated, self-reliant and skilled individual willing to work in a challenging and fast-paced environment with experienced professionals committed to ensuring that our Nation has the safest, most efficient and modern transportation system in the world. This individual should have a keen interest in the legal areas listed in the Duties section of this announcement. The ideal candidate exercises initiative and must be creative in coping with exceptionally difficult and novel legal and policy matters.

Travel Required

Not 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.
• Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

• SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• 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.
• 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.
• PCS/RELOCATION/RECRUITMENT: Permanent Change of Station (PCS), Relocation, and Recruitment Incentive authorization varies by position/selection.
  

Qualifications

To qualify, your experience should include experience and education equal or equivalent to the following:

GRADE 12 -A professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) and be in good standing; AND 1 year of relevant professional legal experience providing legal advice and counsel to the Federal or a state government, or in private practice, including researching, analyzing, and advising on legal policies, procedures, practices, and applicable laws, and Federal guidance.

GRADE 13 -A professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) and be in good standing; AND 2 years of relevant professional legal experience providing legal advice and counsel to the Federal or a state government, or in private practice, including researching, analyzing, and advising on legal policies, procedures, practices, and applicable laws, and Federal guidance.

GRADE 14 - A professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) and be in good standing; AND 3 years of relevant professional legal experience providing legal advice and counsel to the Federal or a state government, or in private practice, including researching, analyzing, and advising on legal policies, procedures, practices, and applicable laws, and Federal guidance.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

Integrity/Honesty:Contributes to maintaining the integrity of the organization; displays high standards of ethical conduct and understands the impact of violating these standards on an organization, self, and others; is trustworthy.

Interpersonal Skills: Knowledge of the principles, methods, and techniques for establishing internal control activities (for example, authorizations, verifications, reconciliations), monitoring their use, and evaluating their performance (for example, identification of material weaknesses or significant deficiencies).

Legal, Government, and Jurisprudence: Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, legal practices and documents, Government regulations, Executive orders, agency rules, Government organization and functions, and the democratic political process. The ability to provide sound and concise legal advice on all facets of Maritime Administration operations including, for example, Government ethics, open Government laws, and maritime support and financial programs.

Negotiation: Works with others towards an agreement that may involve exchanging specific resources or resolving differences.

Oral Communication: Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately. Excellent research, writing, and oral presentation skills.

The ability to handle and prioritize multiple competing tasks while maintaining good working relationships with the highest standards of ethics and public service.

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

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

Education

MANDATORY EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS:

In order to qualify for this position, candidates must have successfully completed a full course of study in a school of law accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and have a professional law degree, and must currently be a member in good standing of the bar of a State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia.

Additional information

THIS VACANCY MAY CLOSE BEFORE THE POSTED CLOSING DATE IF A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF APPLICATIONS ARE RECEIVED. PLEASE COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

TELEWORK: Managers may exercise discretion to allow a limited amount of regular or task-based telework for this position.

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.

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

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

The answers you select in the on-line process must be substantiated in your application package. If upon review, it is determined that your described work history, competencies, and/or supporting documents do not support your answer choices, you may not be referred to the selecting official. Please ensure that your work history provides enough details to support your answers.

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

Trust determination process

Required Documents

ALL Applicants must provide a resume that fully supports the required specialized experience and respond to the vacancy questions by the closing date of the vacancy. Formatted resumes can be uploaded when you arrive at the DOT application system. For assistance with the resume builder, please visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/account/documents/resume/build/

The following is a list of documents that are only required based on the type of position. Please review each of the following sections to determine which documents you need to provide with your application.

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 - Transcripts are REQUIRED as there is a stated education requirement for the series. The transcripts need not be official, but must show that you meet the stated education requirements, including specific major or class requirements.

• If you have previously held a government position in the same series as this position, you may be able to provide an SF-50 showing that you have already qualified and worked in the federal service in this series.

WRITING SAMPLE: If selected for an interview, a writing sample may be requested.

VETERANS: Your last DD214 (member 4 copy), Certificate of Release or Discharge From Active Duty, that shows the type of discharge and all dates of active duty is required to verify your eligibility. It need not be official.

• If you are applying to a vacancy opened to all US Citizens under category rating and wish to be considered as a preference eligible, you need to submit a copy of your DD214 (member-4 copy).
• If you are claiming preference eligibility as a disabled veteran, you must submit proof of entitlement of this preference which is normally a valid letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs certifying to the present existence of the service-connected disability and indicating the percentage of your disability. An SF-15 is desired, but not required.
• If you are applying to a vacancy opened Status and you are requesting consideration under Veteran's Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) ( https://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/shav/#veoa ), you need to provide a copy of your last DD214 (member-4 copy), which verifies your military service dates, reason for separation, OR certification of separation that shows a discharge date within 120 days of the closing of this announcement, and eligibility for consideration under the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application prior to final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents. Uploading documents to USAJobs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system. You must verify that the documents are in the system with your application prior to final submission.

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.