Litigation Support Specialist

As needed, additional positions may be filled using this announcement.

Major duties

As a Litigation Support Specialist in the United States Attorney's Office (USAO), you will join a well-respected team that is responsible for providing a variety of legal support services to the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Your duties will include, but are not limited to: Providing technical advice to litigation teams on legal automation requirements and systems capabilities to facilitate litigation decisions, trial preparation and trial presentation. Analyzing litigation support requirements to develop or recommend appropriate strategies to meet litigation needs. Recommending alternative methods and promoting the use of automated approaches as well as visual means of proof. Preparing computerized trial presentation programs by using and appropriately employing a variety of software packages including database, spreadsheet and word processing applications such as: Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, OnCue, Camtasia, Eclipse, Time Map, Case Map, EverLaw, Evidence.com, etc., based on which software would be most effective for presentation of complex and voluminous evidence or to production of graphic demonstrative evidence, as well as meeting individual user needs. Performing tasks associated with the organization, preparation, delivery, and tracking of discovery in cases involving large volumes of documentary and/or digital evidence. Researching, analyzing, and summarizing relevant legal precedents for applicability to assigned cases as appropriate. Preparing and maintaining a variety of trial-related documents, e.g., discovery letters, exhibit lists, jury instructions, trial subpoenas, etc., by applying a thorough knowledge of the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and applying practical litigative experience. Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

Qualifications

GS-11: To be eligible at the GS-11 level, you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-9 grade level in the Federal service as defined below; or three full years of progressively higher level graduate education, LL.M., Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in a related field (e.g., Information Technology, Criminal Justice, Law); or a combination of both specialized experience and education as explained below. Specialized Experience involves performing the following types of duties: Assessing service and information requirements needed to complete litigation technology support projects. This would include knowledge of database creation and utilization; electronic data acquisition and processing; pre-trial and trial litigation technology support, including courtroom presentation services; analyzing, defining and creating case databases; electronically organizing and managing voluminous case information; diagnosing and resolving litigation support computer system problems. A combination of experience and graduate level education can be used if, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of the first two years can be used in this calculation. To calculate your percentage of graduate education, first determine the total number of graduate level hours that exceed 36 semester hours (or your school's definition of two years of graduate study), then divide the total number of your excess graduate semester hours by 18 (or your school's definition of one year of graduate study). To calculate your percentage of specialized experience, divide the total number of months of qualifying experience by 12. Now, add the two percentages together. The sum of the percentages must equal at least 100%. Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)-The CTAP provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in the Department of Justice with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your Department of Justice component has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your CTAP eligibility, 2) you apply under the instructions in this announcement, and 3) you are found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and receive a score of 85 or better on established ranking criteria. You must provide a copy of your written notification of CTAP eligibility with your application. Additional information about CTAP eligibility is at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Education

All academic degrees and coursework must be completed at a college or university that has obtained accreditation or pre-accreditation status from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools that meet this criteria, see http://www.ed.gov OR Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the above education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to timely provide such evidence by submitting proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency with your application materials. More information may be found at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. All documentation must be in English or include an English translation.