Attorney-Adviser (General)

Summary

About the Position: This position is located at HQ U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), Office of the Commander-J0, Legal Counsel-J05, Stuttgart, Germany. If you are currently serving in a permanent, competitive service appointment in the Federal service, and are selected for this position, the appointment will remove you from the competitive service while you occupy this position.

Duties

Serves as the subject matter expert for government information law, including FOIA and Privacy Act. Prepares written opinions and renders legal advice on a variety of administrative law matters, including but not limited to: Military personnel law, reports of survey, line-of-duty determinations, commander's inquiries, Congressional Inquiries, etc. Conducts classes and training for commanders, staff and other personnel on a variety of administrative and operational areas. Provides legal advice on a wide-variety of administrative-law matters, including but not limited to: Military personnel law, government information law, investigations, and public relations. Drafts, negotiates, and reviews international environmental agreements and other documents relating to international agreements. Prepares opinions and furnishes advice on a wide variety of ethical law issues, including post-employment restrictions, contact with prohibited sources, proper use of government resources including motor vehicles and military air assets. Maintains visibility on all USAFRICOM labor cases, while ensuring that transactional matters associated with these cases are processed by the administrative agent (US Army) for USAFRICOM. Conducts research in connection with cases to analyze factual and legal issues, and to determine what additional facts are needed and legal sources are applicable. Prepares opinions, and drafts and negotiates agreements on legal issues involving US and host nation law (e.g., host nation taxes on official activities of the U.S. Forces, technical experts, private tax relief, and base-stationing agreements). Provides advice and guidance to all levels of the command on fiscal law issues as they relate to contracting and other matters, e.g., travel, personnel. Interprets US and host nation (HN) laws and regulations, international agreements and treaties relating to contracting. Provides advice to military and host nation authorities and other command personnel on procurement fraud investigations and appropriate remedies as required. Provides unusual and precedent-setting deployment contract and fiscal law advice, due to frequent USAFRICOM deployments and contingency operations to hostile and hazardous locations.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: US Citizens Applicants will be evaluated to determine if they meet the minimum qualification requirements and on the extent to which their application shows possession of the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) associated with the position. KSA's: Skill in identifying, researching, and analyzing highly technical and complex legal issues across administrative law, government information law (FOIA and Privacy Act), ethics and standards of conduct, civilian personnel/labor law, international and host-nation law, and acquisition/fiscal law. Skill in providing legal, technical, and policy guidance to senior command officials, staff, and host-nation counterparts on matters involving U.S., host-nation, and international law, including international agreements, environmental agreements, Status of Forces Agreements, and contingency/deployment operations. Qualification Requirements: The following minimum qualification requirements must be met before applicants are eligible for further consideration: Education Requirements: Position requires the possession of the first professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) AND a member in good standing with the highest court of a State, U.S. commonwealth, U.S. territory, or the District of Columbia. Applicants for initial appointment into attorney positions within the Department of Army must be graduates of law schools accredited by the American Bar Association at the time of the applicant's graduation. As indicated below, a law school transcript must be submitted with your application materials. Bar Membership: Applicants must currently be a member in good standing (as defined by the pertinent bar) of the bar of the highest court of a State, U.S. territory, the District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. As noted below, proof of such membership and good standing must be submitted with your application materials. Experience: In addition to the requirements above, applicants for the GS-14 or equivalent Attorney positions must also possess 3 years of professional legal experience, acquired after being admitted to the bar, commensurate with the duties and responsibilities of the position. Graduation from an ABA-Accredited Law School in the top 25% of the class or an advanced law degree such as an LLM may substitute for one year of the required professional legal experience. Time in Grade: The Qualifying Authorities (QA's) will make a determination as to the applicability of time in grade based on the requirements of the position. If you are currently employed as an attorney by the Federal government you must have completed one year at the next lower grade level within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement, or previously served at the same or higher grade level as the position being filled. NOTICE OF VETERAN'S PREFERENCE: There is no formal rating system for applying veteran's preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of the Defense considers veterans' preference eligibility a positive factor for attorney hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans' preference must include that information in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., DD Form 214, "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty") to their submissions. Although the point-preference system is not used, applicants eligible to claim a 10-point preference must submit a Standard Form (SF) 15, "Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference", and supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed. The SF 15 will identify the supporting documentation required along with the list of the types of 10-point preference. The SF 15 is available from the OPM at https://www.gsa.gov/portal/forms/type/sf/. Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration. Direct Deposit of Pay is required. If you have retired from federal service and you are interested in employment as a reemployed annuitant, see the information in the Reemployed Annuitant information sheet. When you perform a Civilian Permanent Change of Station (PCS) with the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers the majority of your entitlements to be taxable. Visit https://www.dfas.mil/civilianemployees/civrelo/Civilian-Moving-Expenses-Tax-Deduction/ for more information.

Education

Only degrees from an accredited college or university recognized by the Department of Education are acceptable to meet positive education requirements or to substitute education for experience. For additional information, please go to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and U.S. Department of Education websites at http://www.opm.gov/qualifications and http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html.

How You Will Be Evaluated

Your application package (resume and supporting documents) will be evaluated for basic qualification requirements and for the skills needed to perform the duties of the position, as described in this vacancy announcement and identified by the Selecting Official. Veteran's preference requirements do not apply to attorney positions in the excepted service, however the principles of veteran's preference will be followed to the extent which is administratively feasible.

Required Documents

The following documents are required: Your resume: Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. Your resume may be submitted in any format and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations and you may not be considered for this vacancy. For qualifications determinations your resume must contain hours worked per week and the dates of employment (i.e., HRS per week and month/year to month/year or month/year to present). If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete and you may not receive consideration for this position. For additional information see: What to include in your resume. References: Must provide three (3) licensed attorney references with contact information. The following documents are preferred at the time of application, but not required: PLEASE NOTE: If you do not have your law school transcripts, certificate of good standing, or fitness to practice statement, you should not be deterred from applying for this position. While not required at the time of application, these documents will be required for the attorney to enter on duty. Official Law School Transcripts: Official law school transcript and an official statement of relative standing in class. Photo static copies of documents are acceptable when applying but certified documents must be furnished before entering duty. Good Standing Certificate: Official certificate showing that you are a member in good standing of the bar dated at any time. However, in the event the candidate is selected for an interview and/or during the hiring process, the candidate must provide an official certificate dated within three months. The certificate is required to be submitted by all applicants to include attorneys currently appointed to positions under the qualifying authority of The Judge Advocate General (including active-duty Army Judge Advocates). Fitness to Practice Statement: A sworn (notarized) statement from you that your fitness to practice law or conduct as an attorney has never been challenged in any jurisdiction to the best of your knowledge, or if either has been challenged, a sworn (notarized) statement concerning the facts and circumstances, together with any explanation that you deem appropriate may be submitted. As an alternative to a sworn (notarized) statement, a statement which includes a declaration under penalty of perjury may be submitted in the following format: "I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct...executed on (date)...(your signature)." (28 U.S.C. 1746)." The statement must be dated within three months of the date that the application package is submitted. The statement is required to be submitted by all applicants to include attorneys currently appointed to positions under the qualifying authority of The Judge Advocate General (including active-duty Army Judge Advocates). Writing Sample: Examples of writing skills as demonstrated by legal briefs, memorandum, and/or letters. Regardless of the number of writing samples submitted, the page count of all writing samples combined cannot exceed 10 pages in length. Extracts of selected sections of larger documents are acceptable. Standard Form (SF) 50: If you are a current or former federal employee, provide a copy of your most recent non-award SF50 to the application package. NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, you must complete the online questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 11/30/2026 to receive consideration. 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 (https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13007044). Follow the prompts to select your resume and/or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. As a reminder, your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. For additional information, refer to the 'Required Documents' section. 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. Your resume selected in USAJOBS will be included, but you must re-select other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application may be incomplete. It is your responsibility to verify that your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) is complete, accurate, and submitted by the closing date. Uploaded documents may take up to one hour to clear the virus scan. Additional information on how to complete the online application process and submit your online application may be found on the USA Staffing Applicant Resource Center. To verify the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account (https://www.usajobs.gov/applicant/profile/dashboard/), all of your applications will appear on the Welcome screen. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means, visit: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to/application/status.

What to Expect Next

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Who May Apply: US Citizens Applicants will be evaluated to determine if they meet the minimum qualification requirements and on the extent to which their application shows possession of the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) associated with the position. KSA's: Skill in identifying, researching, and analyzing highly technical and complex legal issues across administrative law, government information law (FOIA and Privacy Act), ethics and standards of conduct, civilian personnel/labor law, international and host-nation law, and acquisition/fiscal law. Skill in providing legal, technical, and policy guidance to senior command officials, staff, and host-nation counterparts on matters involving U.S., host-nation, and international law, including international agreements, environmental agreements, Status of Forces Agreements, and contingency/deployment operations. Qualification Requirements: The following minimum qualification requirements must be met before applicants are eligible for further consideration: Education Requirements: Position requires the possession of the first professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) AND a member in good standing with the highest court of a State, U.S. commonwealth, U.S. territory, or the District of Columbia. Applicants for initial appointment into attorney positions within the Department of Army must be graduates of law schools accredited by the American Bar Association at the time of the applicant's graduation. As indicated below, a law school transcript must be submitted with your application materials. Bar Membership: Applicants must currently be a member in good standing (as defined by the pertinent bar) of the bar of the highest court of a State, U.S. territory, the District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. As noted below, proof of such membership and good standing must be submitted with your application materials. Experience: In addition to the requirements above, applicants for the GS-14 or equivalent Attorney positions must also possess 3 years of professional legal experience, acquired after being admitted to the bar, commensurate with the duties and responsibilities of the position. Graduation from an ABA-Accredited Law School in the top 25% of the class or an advanced law degree such as an LLM may substitute for one year of the required professional legal experience. Time in Grade: The Qualifying Authorities (QA's) will make a determination as to the applicability of time in grade based on the requirements of the position. If you are currently employed as an attorney by the Federal government you must have completed one year at the next lower grade level within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement, or previously served at the same or higher grade level as the position being filled. NOTICE OF VETERAN'S PREFERENCE: There is no formal rating system for applying veteran's preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of the Defense considers veterans' preference eligibility a positive factor for attorney hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans' preference must include that information in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., DD Form 214, "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty") to their submissions. Although the point-preference system is not used, applicants eligible to claim a 10-point preference must submit a Standard Form (SF) 15, "Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference", and supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed. The SF 15 will identify the supporting documentation required along with the list of the types of 10-point preference. The SF 15 is available from the OPM at https://www.gsa.gov/portal/forms/type/sf/. Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration. Direct Deposit of Pay is required. If you have retired from federal service and you are interested in employment as a reemployed annuitant, see the information in the Reemployed Annuitant information sheet. When you perform a Civilian Permanent Change of Station (PCS) with the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers the majority of your entitlements to be taxable. Visit https://www.dfas.mil/civilianemployees/civrelo/Civilian-Moving-Expenses-Tax-Deduction/ for more information.