Paralegal Specialist

About the Position:

As a Paralegal Specialist you will managing District FOIA/Privacy Act operations and providing complex litigation support. Analyzes legal issues, conducts in-depth research, and drafts pleadings, briefs, and reports across contract, tort, labor, and environmental matters. Coordinates discovery and pretrial preparation while administering automated legal management, matter tracking, and e-discovery systems for legal staff.

Major duties

• Process, analyze, and evaluate FOIA/Privacy Act requests, determines releasability, applies statutory exemptions, coordinates with counsel, and tracks appeals.
• Perform in-depth legal research and factual investigations using automated legal databases and legal references to evaluate precedents, statutory authorities, and complex legal issues.
• Draft legal documents, pleadings, briefs, discovery requests, motions, and litigation reports requiring detailed analysis of laws, regulations, and procedure to assist staff attorneys.
• Coordinate litigation support, discovery, witness/expert interviews, and deposition/trial logistics across contractual, tort, environmental, labor, and civil litigation matters.
• Manage automated legal systems and e-discovery tools, overseeing matter tracking, case management databases, litigation data capture, and training legal personnel on IT platforms.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: US Citizens In order to qualify, you must meet the experience requirements described below. 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). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes 1.) Analyzing, processing, and determining the releasability of complex Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act requests, including applying legal exemptions and preparing initial denial determinations; 2) Conducting comprehensive legal and factual research using automated databases and legal resources to analyze precedents, statutes, and agency regulations; 3.) Drafting legal documents, including pleadings, briefs, discovery requests/responses, litigation reports, and legal memoranda in support of ongoing litigation; 4.) Assisting attorneys with trial preparation, witness interviews, discovery coordination, e-discovery processes, and pretrial proceedings; and 5.) Utilizing and maintaining automated legal case management, matter tracking, and e-discovery databases. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-11).

Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--no substitution of education for experience is permitted.

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-11).