Duties

Summary

This position is located in the Headquarters (HQ), Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA),Office of General Counsel (OGC). The primary purpose of this position is to serve as a legal assistant to all components of the General Council. The incumbent is responsible for coordinating, reviewing and processing of legal and administrative support activities in accomplishing the assigned mission of the OGC.
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Responsibilities

• Responsible for coordinating, reviewing and processing of legal and administrative support activities in accomplishing the assigned mission of the Office of General Counsel (OGC)
• Provide a wide-range of legal and administrative support. services to the Office of General Counsel (OGC)
• Function as primary assistant to the Freedom of Information Act Officer, under his/her direct supervision, and receives, evaluates, researches and gathers requested information and drafts responses to individual requestors in accordance with current regulation for review and approval by the Freedom of Information Officer.
• Compose and prepare correspondence, not requiring legal interpretation, but requiring knowledge of legal procedures and specialized terminology, in all manner of legal correspondence including but not limited to Freedom of Information/Privacy Act, Federal Tort Claims, personnel law, commercial law, and all nature of legal business routinely addressed by the Office of General Counsel (OGC)
• Perform general administrative support duties of the GC in coordination with other administrative support personnel.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
None

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Must be a United States Citizen
• Application materials must be received by 11:59 EST On the closing date.
• Work Schedule: Full time
• Tour of Duty: NO irregular schedule, nights and/or weekends are required
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS) Costs: Not authorized
• Position Sensitivity Non-Critical sensitive
• Overtime: Occasionally
• Temporary Duty (TDY) Travel: Occasionally
• Fair Labor Standards Act: (FLSA): non exempt
• Bargaining Unit Position:
• Drug Testing: Not Required
• Physical Requirement: n/a
• Obligated Position: NO
• Selective Service Requirement: All male applicants born after December 31, 1959 must be registered with the selective service system or exempt from Selective Service. Please visit https://www.sss.gov/ for more information.

Qualifications

In accordance with the Group Coverage Qualification Standards for Clerical and Administrative Support Positions, http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/Standards/group-stds/gs-cler.asp.applications

To qualify for this position you must possess One year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-7 grade level that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to perform successfully the duties of the position, and is directly in or related to this position. To be creditable, specialized experience must be at GS-7 or equivalent under other pay systems in the Federal service, military, or private sector.

Examples of specialized experience include:

• Review various requests for completeness, supporting documentation and mathematical correctness and draft replies for pertinent attorney. These requests include but are not limited to Permanent Change of Station (PCS) entitlements (real estate claims), requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act, etc. Creates, maintains and monitors Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act case files.
• Clerical and administrative support duties performed within the Office of General Counsel (OGC) include but are not limited to incoming and outgoing mail; routing of legal questions and inquiries within the Office; general correspondence; general filing and file maintenance; establishing, maintaining, and closing case files or systems of legal records; annotating indices and status records; compiling workload and status reports; monitoring and keeping up suspense and case dockets; and locating and abstracting data from files and records
• Creates, maintains and monitors Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act case files.

Volunteer Experience: Your experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through a National Service program (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, and 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 qualifications determinations your resume must contain your name, a description of your duties, the number of hours worked per week and the beginning and ending dates (month/year) for each position. Resumes that do not contain this information will be marked as insufficient and applicants may not receive consideration for this position.

Education

Education may not be substituted for specialized experience at this grade level.

Additional information

REGARDING INTERVIEWS: Interviews may be required for this position. Accommodations may be made to conduct telephonic interviews to preclude travel hardships for applicants.

Re-employed Annuitant: A former Federal employee who has retired under either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) is an Annuitant. An annuitant cannot be hired (i.e. re-employed) unless the vacant position meets the criteria in the Department of Defense (DOD) policy on employment of annuitants issued December 10, 2008. The DoD criteria for hiring Re-employed Annuitants can be found at http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/1400.25-V300.pdf .

Re-employed Annuitant: This position does not meet criteria for re-employed annuitant.

Other Notes:

• Deliberate attempts to falsify your application information, such as copying portions of this job announcement into your resume, may result in you being removed from consideration for this position.
• Additional vacancies may be filled from this announcement upon its closing.
• Applicants selected from this announcement may be required to serve a Two Year probationary period.
• Financial Difficulty - https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/Mythbuster_on_Federal_Hiring_Policies_0.pdf

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Specifically you will be evaluated on the following competencies:

• Clerical
• Manages and Organizes Information
• Minimum Qualifications GS-08 (One-Grade Interval- No Education Substitution)
• Writing

REVIEW OF APPLICATION DOCUMENTS: To determine if you meet the qualifications, requirements and quality of experience required for this position, we review your resume, supporting documents and responses to the questionnaire. The score you receive is a measure of the degree to which your background matches the competencies required. Please follow all instructions carefully as errors or omissions may affect your rating.

Based on the results of the evaluation process, we place those who apply under delegated examining procedures in one of the following quality categories:

• Best-Qualified: Candidates who possess the type and quality of experience that substantially exceeds the position's minimum qualifications, including all selective placement factors and appropriate quality ranking factors.
• Highly-Qualified: Candidates who possess the type and quality of experience that exceeds the position's minimum qualifications.
• Qualified: Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications and are proficient in some but not all of the position's requirements.

We send candidates in the Best-Qualified category to the hiring manager for employment consideration first. We send candidates in other categories to the hiring manager based on category rating procedures. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/competitive-hiring/#url=Category-Rating

Veterans in the Best-Qualified category who (1) provide all applicable and required documents (See the Required Documents section for more information) and (2) meet all the positions' requirements are referred before non-veteran candidates. If there are no veterans in the Best-Qualified category meeting these criteria, we refer non-veteran candidates for employment consideration.

Veterans Preference: If you are entitled to veterans preference, indicate on your resume the type of veterans' preference you are claiming. Your veterans' preference entitlement will be verified by the employing agency. If you are entitled to veterans' preference and qualified for the position, your name will be placed above non-preference candidates on a list sent to the hiring manager for employment consideration. Qualified veterans' preference eligible with a service-connected disability of 10% or more will be listed at the top of the highest quality category depending on the position and grade level of the job. For information on entitlement see http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/vetpref/index.aspx .

Military Spouse Preference: If you are entitled to military spouse preference, in order to receive this preference you must choose the spousal eligibility in your application package referencing MSP Military Spouse Preference. Your preference entitlement will be verified by the employing agency. If you are claiming military spouse preference and qualified for the position, your name will be placed below preference eligible veteran candidates and above non-preference candidates on a list sent to the hiring manager for employment consideration. See the Required Documents section for information regarding documents you must submit to apply for this position and to claim your Military Spouse Preference (MSP).

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Noncritical-Sensitive (NCS)/Moderate Risk

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

Application packages should include the following documents:

• Questionnaire: Required
• Transcripts: Required if using education to qualify. See Education section for more information.
• Resume: Required **To ensure full consideration of your experience and education we encourage you to use the USAJOBS resume builder to prepare your resume or to guide you in preparing your resume.

For qualifications determinations your resume must contain the following:

• Applicant's full legal name and contact information.
• Description of your duties
• Number of hours worked per week
• Beginning and ending dates (month/year) for each position.

To ensure full consideration of your experience and education we encourage you to use the USAJOBS resume builder to prepare your resume or to guide you in preparing your resume. Applicants who fail to provide the required information on their resume will not receive consideration for this position. See https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/faq/application/documents/resume/what-to-include/ for more information.

If you are claiming Veterans' Preference, you must submit supporting documents with your application package. These documents must provide acceptable documentation to verify the type of preference claimed (i.e. 5-point, 10-point, etc.) and the character of the service (i.e. Honorable Discharge). A copy of your DD214, "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty," showing your Character of Service is required when claiming Veterans' Preference. The member 4 copy of your DD214, "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty," is preferable. If unable to verify Character of Service, you will not receive veteran's preference.

If claiming 10-point preference, you will need to submit a Standard Form 15, "Application for 10-point Veterans' Preference," http://www.opm.gov/Forms/pdf_fill/SF15.pdf . If selected, additional documentation may be required prior to appointment.

If claiming 10 point preference, you will need to submit a Veteran Disability (VA) Letter. If you need assistance in obtaining a VA Letter please visit https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits/homepage .

If you are currently serving on active duty and expected to be released or discharged within the next 120 days, you must submit written documentation from the armed forces that certifies you are expected to be discharged or released from active duty service in the armed forces under honorable conditions not later than 120 days from the date the written documentation is signed. If selected, additional documentation may be required prior to appointment.

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Programs: This program applies to employees who have been involuntarily separated from a Federal service position within the competitive service or Federal service employees whose positions have been deemed surplus or no longer needed. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet ICTAP eligibility criteria; 2) be rated well-qualified for the position; Well qualified is defined as possessing the type and quality of experience that exceeds the positions minimum qualifications. and 3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your ICTAP eligibility. For more information: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/ .

If you are claiming Military Spouse Preference, you must submit supporting documents with your application package. These documents must provide acceptable information to verify: you reside within the commuting area of your sponsor's permanent duty station (PDS); proof of marriage to the active duty sponsor, proof of military member's active duty status, and other documentation required by the vacancy announcement to which you are applying; and must meet all pre-employment criteria and be eligible for immediate noncompetitive appointment to a position in the competitive service.Documentation required: Marriage Certificate or License, Signed Self-Certification Checklist, Veterans' Preference documentation (e.g., DD-214, VA Letter, Statement of Service, if applicable), Transcripts (if applicable).

MSP CHECKLIST: https://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/Documents/CivilianJobs/MSP_PPP_Self-Certification_Checklist_Fillable_Form.pdf

Additional documentation required if previously held a federal position: SF-50s (e.g., LWOP, highest grade held, overseas appointments, etc.), SF-75 Information, and documentation of performance rating of record (dated within the last 12 months).

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.