Associate General Counsel

JobSummary

This position is designated as SES, General. USDA structures its SES positions into position levels. This is a position level 2 with a salary range of $204,122 to $216,010 per year. Exceptions to the salary cap may be considered in certain circumstances. SES employees are also eligible to receive bonuses and performance-based awards. Visit http://www.opm.gov/ses/ for additional information and benefits for SES employees.

LowGrade

00

HighGrade

00

PromotionPotential

00

SubAgencyName

GENERAL LAW AND RESEARCH DIVISION

OrganizationCodes

AG/AG14

Relocation

True

HiringPath

• ses
• fed-competitive
• fed-excepted
• public

MCOTags

TotalOpenings

1

AgencyMarketingStatement

The Senior Executive Service (SES) is comprised of the men and women charged with leading the continuing transformation of the government. These leaders possess well-honed executive skills and share a broad perspective of government and a public service commitment which is grounded in the Constitution. If you would like to work for a premier agency focused on enhancing the quality of life for the American people by supporting production of agriculture; ensuring safe, affordable, nutritious and accessible food supply; forest and range lands; supporting sound development of rural communities; providing economic opportunities for farm and rural residents; expanding global markets for agricultural and forest products and services; and working to reduce hunger in America and throughout the world, then the USDA is for you. To learn more about our agency, our exciting mission, vision and guiding principles, please visit http://www.usda.gov.

TravelCode

2

ApplyOnlineUrl

https://apply.usastaffing.gov/Application/Apply

DetailStatusUrl

https://apply.usastaffing.gov/Application/ApplicationStatus

MajorDuties

• Provide comprehensive legal advice and services to high-level USDA officials, on legal problems, procedures, and practices related to policy development, day-to-day operations, and integration with other government programs.
• Coordinate and manage litigation and appellate cases involving USDA, including those pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State appellate courts.
• Handle legal issues related to federal statutes and regulations, including the Federal Tort Claims Act, Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, Federal Advisory Committee Act, federal procurement laws, and fiscal laws.
• Oversee legal aspects of Departmental operations, including budget and fiscal matters, procurement, intellectual property, COOP and disaster preparedness, cybersecurity, and emergency response.
• Provide expert legal opinions, draft and review legislation, and coordinate the legal review of legislation and ancillary materials for USDA.
• Supervise and provide technical guidance to subordinate attorneys on the preparation of proposed legislation, legislative analysis, and development of the Department's position on legislative proposal within the responsibilities of the division.
• Represent USDA in meetings with the White House Counsel, OMB, DOJ, Congressional Committees (including the Senate and House Agriculture Committees and the Senate and House Appropriations Committees), and other federal agencies.
• Confer with Solicitor General, Assistant Attorneys General, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and other Department of Justice officials regarding Departmental litigation at the appellate level.
• Attend conferences and meetings as counsel for the Department, providing expert legal advice to top officials from various government agencies and industry representatives.
• Ensure compliance with equal opportunity and nondiscriminatory practices in merit promotion, recruitment, hiring, and career development of staff.
• Develop and apply extensive knowledge of general and administrative law, including experience in trial and appellate litigation, legislative drafting, fiscal law, procurement law, and various federal statutes and regulations.
• Provide expertise in areas such as FOIA, Privacy Act, FACA, FTCA, Vacancies Reform Act, national and domestic security law, information technology law, cybersecurity, and intellectual property law.
• Ensure comprehensive understanding of USDA programs related to agricultural economics, statistics, crop reporting activities, research, education, and extension matters.
• Handle legal work arising from activities of the Agricultural Research Service, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Economic Research Service, and the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
• Oversee legal aspects related to homeland security, emergency response, and cybersecurity.
• Provide technical assistance and legal review for USDA policy officials in drafting and analyzing legislative proposals and amendments.
• Develop briefs of legal authorities for legislative and statutory aspects of Department programs and agricultural issues.
• Supervise and review the preparation of briefs and presentation of oral arguments in appellate courts.

Education

A professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) from an accredited law school, Law School transcript required AND active membership of the bar in good standing in any state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Requirements

Evaluations

You will be evaluated on the quality and extent of your total accomplishments, experience, and education (if applicable). Your application will be rated and ranked by a review board using only the information submitted within the application package. Applicants who do not demonstrate in their resume sufficient possession of the ECQs & TQs will be determined to be ineligible for further consideration. Unless you have already been certified by a Qualifications Review Board (QRB) in the past, you must be certified by a QRB after selection and before appointment can occur. Once the application process is complete, a review of your resume and supporting documentation will be conducted. If you meet minimum qualifications, your Application Package will be further reviewed to determine if you possess the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ) and Technical Qualifications (TQ) listed above. ECQs and TQs must be thoroughly addressed within your two (2) page resume. Separate narratives will not be accepted or reviewed. Highly Qualified applicants may undergo one or more interviews and may be referred to the selecting official for further consideration. Upon selection, if not already a member of the SES serving under a career appointment, the individual selected must have his/her executive qualifications certified by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's SES Qualifications Review Board (QRB) before appointment to this position. The selected individual's application will be forwarded to the OPM for review and certification by the QRB, unless the selectee provides evidence of their noncompetitive status (i.e., a current SES, OPM QRB certified SESCDP graduate, or SES reinstatement eligible). Upon QRB certification, the selected individual will be required to serve a one-year probationary period. For more information regarding the SES, go to https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/. To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12906405

HowToApply

ONLY SUBMIT THE MATERIALS REQUESTED BY THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes: - Complete Resume - Other supporting documentation as required. Please see the "REQUIRED DOCUMENTS" section and review the applicant checklist link to determine if there other documents you are required to submit. Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin. Failure to submit the required documentation by 11:59 pm EST of the closing date will result in loss of consideration. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Monday - Friday). Applying online is highly encouraged. If applying online poses a hardship, please contact our office during business hours well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages with supporting documents must be submitted no later than noon on the closing date of the announcement in order to be entered into the system prior to its closing. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact us if you are requesting this. It is important that you are complete and thorough in your resume. Please be sure to include and address all ECQs and TQs in your resume. A sample 2-page resume that incorporates ECQs can be viewed at this link: Guide to SES Qualifications Candidates who do not submit a complete application package as indicated in this announcement will not be considered. Please be sure to remove all PII (e.g. SNN, DOB, etc.) from all documentation. Spell out acronyms the first time used. Please do not submit documents that are not requested in the vacancy announcement. Step 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not have one) at www.usajobs.gov. It is recommended that as part of your profile you set up automatic email notification to be informed when the status of your application changes. If you choose not to set up this automatic notification, then you will have to log into your USAJOBS account to check on the status of your application. Step 2: Create a resume with USAJOBS or upload a resume into your USAJOBS account. Customize your resume to ensure it documents duties and accomplishments you have gained that are directly related to this position in order to verify that qualifications are met. Your resume must support your responses to the online questionnaire (you may preview the online questionnaire by clicking on the link at the end of the How You Will Be Evaluated section of the job announcement). Step 3: Click "Apply Online" and follow the prompts to complete the Occupational Questionnaire and attach any additional documents that may be required. You can update your application or documents anytime while the announcement is open. Log into your USAJOBS account and click on "Application Status." Click on the position title, and then select "Update Application" to continue. NOTE: Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable.

WhatToExpectNext

To verify the status of your application, sign in to your USAJOBS account (https://www.usajobs.gov/), 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. Once your online application is submitted you will receive a confirmation notification by email. Your application will be evaluated by the Human Resources Office to determine your eligibility for the position. After the evaluation is complete, you will receive another notification regarding the status of your application.

RequiredDocuments

Your resume should contain information sufficient to make a valid determination that you fully meet the specialized experience requirements as stated in this vacancy announcement. It is recommended that you include the following information: 1. 2-page ECQ/TQ based Resume. DO NOT submit Executive Core Qualifications or Technical Qualifications in lieu of a resume. 2. Current or former career SES members must provide an SF-50 showing current status or reinstatement eligibility. 3. Applicants who have successfully completed an OPM-approved SES Candidate Development Programs must submit a copy of their certification. 4. Current or former Federal civilian employees, please provide a copy of your most recent SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action). Education (if applicable): A copy of your transcript(s) or a separate course listing showing the college name, course title, department, hours earned (quarter or semester), and grade. If you have completed any part of your education outside the U.S., you must submit the evaluation of your foreign education that has been prepared by an accredited organization. The National Association for Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) can provide a list of who can evaluate your foreign education. For additional information, visit DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.

Benefits

OtherInformation

Consideration for competitive selection for this position is open to all persons within the area of consideration who meet the basic qualifications. Race, color, age, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, religion, marital or family status, disability, and other non-merit factors will not be considered. 1. This position is covered under the post-employment restriction of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-521). This law also requires the selectee to file an Executive Personnel Financial Disclosure Report (Standard Form 278), within 30 days of appointment. 2. Applications sent in U.S. Government postage-paid envelope and submitted through Federal Agency courier services will not be considered. 3. The 1993 Hatch Act Reform Amendments prohibit oral and written political recommendations for Federal jobs. 4. Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must be registered with the Selective Service System before they can be employed by an executive agency of the Federal government. This requirement does not apply to Agency employees appointed before November 8, 1985. 5. All application forms are subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act and become the property of USDA. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs). Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication or program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). Reasonable Accommodation: This agency provides reasonable accommodation for applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency at 202-260-8128. The decision on granting reasonable accommodation will be on a case-by-case basis. Effective January 1, 2010, OPM must authorize any employment offers we make to current or former (within the last 5 years) political Schedule A, Schedule C, or Non-career SES employees in the executive branch. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, or Non-career SES employee in the executive branch, you must disclose that to the Human Resources Office.

KeyRequirements

WithinArea

False

CommuteDistance

0

ServiceType

03

AnnouncementClosingType

01

AgencyContactEmail

michelle.t.williams@usda.gov

AgencyContactPhone

202-791-8477

SecurityClearance

Top Secret

DrugTestRequired

True

PositionSensitivitiy

Critical-Sensitive (CS)/High Risk

AdjudicationType

• Credentialing
• Suitability/Fitness
• National security