Attorney-Advisor (General)

Summary

This position is located in the Office of Adjudication Services, Office of the Secretary, for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

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 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Adjudicatory Services (OAS). OHA is an independent adjudicatory office within the Office of the Secretary and is responsible for hearing and deciding matters assigned to it by statute, regulation, or delegation. OHA's judges preside over administrative proceedings involving HUD programs, including enforcement actions, civil money penalties, fair housing matters, debarment-related matters, administrative wage garnishment, salary offset, and other administrative appeals. The attorney serves as an Attorney-Adviser supporting the Chief Administrative Law Judge, Administrative Law Judges, and Administrative Judges in the fair, accurate, and timely resolution of assigned cases. Duties may include legal research and analysis, review of pleadings and administrative records, preparation of draft decisions and orders, case management support, and application of HUD statutes, regulations, and procedural rules in administrative adjudications. The following are the duties of this position at the GS-14. If you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform all these duties and will receive training to help you grow in this position. Provides research memoranda interpreting the various statutes, regulations and policies administered by OHA. Personally, conducts a review of presented facts, researches applicable laws, regulations and precedents and produces said memoranda in support of the presiding judge. Conducts research of laws, legal opinions, policies, regulations, legal texts and precedent cases involved in the case. Prepares memoranda outlining the facts and legal issues, analyzing the factual and legal issues involved, explaining the application of legal principles and precedents, and justifying the judge's ultimate determinations. Examines formal filings for legal sufficiency and refers findings to the presiding judge.

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements by 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. Requirements for meeting the GS-11 level includes: First professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.), plus one (1) year of professional legal experience. OR Second professional law degree (LL.M.). OR First professional law degree (LL.B., or J.D.) plus have superior law student work (academic standing in the 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 schools official law review, significant summer clerkship or other evidence of clearly superior achievement). In addition to the Basic Requirements above you must also meet the Specialized Experience. Specialized experience for the GS-11 is defined as: Experience assisting with analyzing and interpreting federal, state, or local statutes; conducting legal research; and preparing legal opinions or other legal writings. 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. 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) 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 to USAJOBS Help Center - How to see your application and job status To preview the questionnaire: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12992518 The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits specific inquiries concerning an applicant's criminal or credit background unless the hiring agency has made a conditional offer of employment to the applicant. An applicant may submit a complaint, or any other information, to the agency within 30 calendar days of the date of alleged non-compliance by contacting: FairChanceAct@hud.gov What are criminal history inquiries?

What to Expect Next

Once the online questionnaire is received, you will receive an acknowledgement email that your submission was successful. We will review your resume and transcript(s) (if appropriate) to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. We will evaluate each applicant who meets the basic qualifications on the information provided and may interview the best-qualified applicants. After making a tentative job offer, we will conduct any required suitability and/or security background investigation.

Additional Information

OTHER INFORMATION: We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies. This is a non-bargaining unit position. This position is Exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). HUD offers alternative and flexible work schedules. This announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies for similar positions across HUD. During the online application process, you will be asked to specify if you would like your application information shared with other hiring managers in the Program Office listed in this announcement or in other HUD Program Offices. Opting to share your application information will not impact your application for this announcement, nor will it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT (CONTINUED): HUD employees are subject to a number of government-wide and HUD specific ethics laws and regulations, including restric...

You must meet the following requirements by 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. Requirements for meeting the GS-11 level includes: First professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.), plus one (1) year of professional legal experience. OR Second professional law degree (LL.M.). OR First professional law degree (LL.B., or J.D.) plus have superior law student work (academic standing in the 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 schools official law review, significant summer clerkship or other evidence of clearly superior achievement). In addition to the Basic Requirements above you must also meet the Specialized Experience. Specialized experience for the GS-11 is defined as: Experience assisting with analyzing and interpreting federal, state, or local statutes; conducting legal research; and preparing legal opinions or other legal writings. 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.