Attorney-Adviser (General)

Summary

This position is located in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of General Counsel.

Duties

HUD's Mission The mission of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is to foster strong communities by supporting access to quality, affordable housing, expanding the housing supply, and unlocking homeownership opportunities for the American people. The Department is committed to furthering the promise of self-sufficiency in every American while promoting economic development to revitalize rural, tribal, and urban communities across the country. This position is located in the Office of General Counsel (OGC), Deputy General Counsel for Operations. OGC is the chief legal office of the Department, the principal legal adviser to the Secretary and staff of HUD, and the head of the Departmental Enforcement Center. OGC provides legal opinions, advice, and services with respect to all Departmental programs and activities, and assists in the development of HUD programs and policies. OGC also provides functional legal counsel on defensive and affirmative litigation and the development of legislation and regulations. As an Attorney-Adviser (General), you will: Identify and analyze problems and renders legal opinions on the most difficult and complex legal issues, including questions for which no clear legal precedent exists. Provide legal advice and support to Multifamily Housing Regional Centers and Satellite Offices. Work closely with other HUD attorneys and Assistant United States Attorneys to assist them in making decisions on matters. Provide legal advice and assistance to program directors regarding the servicing of mortgages, including property management, foreclosure and resale of properties after insurance. Provide legal advice to the Director of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity ("FHEO"), on matters involving the enforcement of the 1964 and 1968 Civil Rights Acts and their executive orders and regulations.

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. Basic Requirements: Applicants MUST: (1) be a graduate of an accredited law school with an LL.B. or J.D.; (2) be a current member of a bar with a valid license to practice law in a state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and (3) meet all specialized experience requirements as described in the vacancy announcement. AND For the GS-15, you must: Have a professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.), plus five (5) years of professional legal experience, at least one of which must be specialized experience at a level of difficulty comparable to the GS-14 level in the Federal service. OR Have a second professional law degree (LL.M.) plus four (4) years of professional legal experience, at least one of which must be specialized experience at a level of difficulty comparable to the GS-14 level in the Federal service. OR Have a first professional law degree (LL.B., or J.D.), plus superior law student work (academic standing in upper 1/3 of the law school graduating class, high-level honors for academic excellence in law school, winning of a moot court competition with other law schools, significant work or achievement on the school's official law review, significant summer clerkship or other evidence of clearly superior achievement) plus four (4) years of professional legal experience, at least one of which must be specialized experience at a level of difficulty comparable to the GS-14 level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience: For the GS-15 grade level, you must have one year (52 full weeks) of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-14 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience for this position includes: - Experience as an attorney responsible for providing legal advice related to single family and multifamily mortgage insurance programs, real estate transactions, personnel/labor law, procurement law, administrative law, ethics, Healthcare Programs, assisted housing programs, FHA property disposition, FHA multifamily loan management, Fair Housing compliance, community development block grant programs, defensive and affirmative litigation, enforcement, or issues related to other HUD programs; AND - Experience providing administrative and supervisory support on tasks, including but not limited to workload tracking, reporting, records retention, hiring and recruiting, or innovation. Time-in-Grade: In addition to the above requirements, you must meet the following time-in-grade requirement, if applicable: For the GS-15, you must have been at the GS-14 level for 52 weeks. The experience may have been gained in either the public or private sector. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/date/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your resume.

Education

Attorney positions do have an education requirement. Applicants must be a graduate of an accredited law school with an LL.B. or J.D. For positions with an education requirement, you MUST submit a copy of your transcripts or equivalent. An official transcript will be required if you are selected. In addition you must provide proof of bar or your bar number in the vacancy questions. The education generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. If you are qualifying based on foreign education, you must submit proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency. Refer to the OPM instructions.

How You Will Be Evaluated

Your application includes your resume, responses to the online questions, and required supporting documents. Please be sure that your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications for this position; failure to provide sufficient evidence in your resume may result in a "not qualified" determination. 1. Minimum Requirements: Your application must show that you meet all requirements, including the education and/or experience required for this position. You will be found "not qualified" if you do not possess the minimum competencies required for the position. If your application is incomplete, we will rate you as ineligible. 2. Referral: Since this is an Excepted Service position, a non-rated method of evaluation will be used. We will evaluate your application by comparing your description of your work experience, level of responsibility, and accomplishments with the requirements of the position to determine whether you meet all the qualification requirements. Although competitive examining rules for rating and ranking and veterans' preference do not apply, veteran's preference will be considered as a positive factor. Candidates who meet all the qualification and other eligibility requirements will be referred to the selecting official for consideration and possible interview.

Required Documents

A complete application includes: 1. A resume: All applicants are required to submit a resume either by creating one in USAJOBS or uploading one of their own choosing. (Cover letters are optional.) USA Jobs restricts resume uploads to a maximum of 2 pages. Resumes attached in other sections (such as "Documents" or "Other") will not be considered in the determination of specialized experience. If multiple resumes are submitted, the resume submitted last (based on time stamp) will be the only one reviewed as a part of your application. To ensure readability, resumes must be formatted using an easy-to-read font (such as Lato, Calibri, or Arial) with a minimum font size of 10-points and margins no smaller than 0.5 inches. Failure to follow these formatting guidelines may result in disqualification from further consideration. To receive full credit for relevant experience, please list the month/date/year and number of hours worked for experience listed on your resume. For resume writing guidance, please visit USAJOBS Help Center - How do I write a resume for a federal job? 2. Vacancy question responses: All applicants are required to complete vacancy question responses by clicking the apply online button of this vacancy announcement. 3. Performance Appraisal or explanation: Submit a copy of all pages of your most recent completed annual performance appraisal, dated within 12 months of the opening date of this announcement, that includes the final rating. In cases where the performance appraisal is more than 12 months old, incomplete, missing pages, or unavailable, you must attach a written explanation of the reasons. Failure to do so may prevent you from being considered for this position. If you do not have your most recent performance appraisal or have not received one in the last 12 months, please submit a statement as to why it is not available when completing your questionnaire. 4. Submission of any required documents identified below, if applicable: Please note that if you do not provide all required information, as specified in this announcement, you may not be considered for this position (or may not receive the special consideration for which you may be eligible) CURRENT AND FORMER EMPLOYEES -- Documentation Relating to Your Federal Employment: Submit a copy of your SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) that indicates you are a current HUD employee. If you do not have a copy of your SF-50 that indicates this information, you must upload an explanation. Applications without this information will not be considered. Typically Award SF-50s do not provide the required information. If the full performance level of your position is different from the current grade indicated in Block 18, please provide proof of the full performance level. If your highest permanent grade is different from your current grade, submit a copy of an additional SF-50 showing that grade. VETERANS' PREFERENCE DOCUMENTATION: If you are claiming veterans preference, please see applicant guide for required documentation. In order to be considered for veterans preference, you must submit all required documentation as outlined in the applicant guide. ACTIVE BAR MEMBERSHIP: You must submit evidence of an Active Bar Membership as described in the Qualifications Section of this announcement. EDUCATION DOCUMENTATION: Attorney positions do have an education requirement. Applicants must be a graduate of an accredited law school with an LL.B. or J.D. For positions with an education requirement, you MUST submit a copy of your transcripts or equivalent. An official transcript will be required if you are selected. In addition you must provide proof of bar or your bar number in the vacancy questions. For positions with an education requirement, or if you are qualifying for this position by substituting education or training for experience, you MUST submit a copy of your transcripts or equivalent. An official transcript will be required if you are selected. A college or university degree generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools which meet these criteria, please refer to Department of Education Accreditation page. If you are qualifying based on foreign education, you must submit proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency. Refer to the OPM instructions. RECOMMENDED DOCUMENTS: In addition, we recommend that you submit copies of the following: A legal writing sample of between 5 - 10 pages containing legal analysis. A copy of all pages of your most recent completed annual performance appraisal, dated within the last 12 months, that includes the final rating.

How to Apply

HUD has partnered with the Department of Treasury to provide certain personnel services to its organization. Treasury's responsibilities include advertising vacancies, accepting and handling applications, and extending job offers. Please review the entire announcement before applying. The following instructions outline our application process. You must complete this application process and submit any required documents by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, please contact us by noon ET on the announcement's closing date. HUD provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us if you require this for any part of the application and hiring process. To begin, click Apply to access the online application. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account to apply. If you do not have a USAJOBS account, you will need to create one before beginning the application. Follow the prompts to select your resume and/or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. You will have the opportunity to upload additional documents to include in your application before it is submitted. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. After acknowledging you have reviewed your application package, complete the Include Personal Information section as you deem appropriate and click to continue with the application process. You will be taken to the online application which you must complete in order to apply for the position. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation is included with your application package, and submit the application. To verify the status of your application: Log into your USAJOBS account (USAJOBS Login) A list of announcements in which you have applied will be at the Welcome screen Under "application status," click "Track this application" and you will be taken to the agency website where you can check your application status. For more information regarding the job and applicant status, please refer to https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/. If you wish to make changes/updates to your application and the vacancy is still open, you can click on the job announcement and "Update Application" to be taken back to your application. No updates can be made once the announcement has closed. Please notify us if your contact information changes after the closing date of the announcement. Also, note that if you provide an email address that is inaccurate or if your mailbox is full or blocked (e.g., spam-blocker), you may not receive important communication that could affect your consideration for this position. For more information regarding the job and applicant status, please refer ...

You must meet the following requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. Basic Requirements: Applicants MUST: (1) be a graduate of an accredited law school with an LL.B. or J.D.; (2) be a current member of a bar with a valid license to practice law in a state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and (3) meet all specialized experience requirements as described in the vacancy announcement. AND For the GS-15, you must: Have a professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.), plus five (5) years of professional legal experience, at least one of which must be specialized experience at a level of difficulty comparable to the GS-14 level in the Federal service. OR Have a second professional law degree (LL.M.) plus four (4) years of professional legal experience, at least one of which must be specialized experience at a level of difficulty comparable to the GS-14 level in the Federal service. OR Have a first professional law degree (LL.B., or J.D.), plus superior law student work (academic standing in upper 1/3 of the law school graduating class, high-level honors for academic excellence in law school, winning of a moot court competition with other law schools, significant work or achievement on the school's official law review, significant summer clerkship or other evidence of clearly superior achievement) plus four (4) years of professional legal experience, at least one of which must be specialized experience at a level of difficulty comparable to the GS-14 level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience: For the GS-15 grade level, you must have one year (52 full weeks) of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-14 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience for this position includes: - Experience as an attorney responsible for providing legal advice related to single family and multifamily mortgage insurance programs, real estate transactions, personnel/labor law, procurement law, administrative law, ethics, Healthcare Programs, assisted housing programs, FHA property disposition, FHA multifamily loan management, Fair Housing compliance, community development block grant programs, defensive and affirmative litigation, enforcement, or issues related to other HUD programs; AND - Experience providing administrative and supervisory support on tasks, including but not limited to workload tracking, reporting, records retention, hiring and recruiting, or innovation. Time-in-Grade: In addition to the above requirements, you must meet the following time-in-grade requirement, if applicable: For the GS-15, you must have been at the GS-14 level for 52 weeks. The experience may have been gained in either the public or private sector. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/date/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your resume.