Department of Justice Seal

ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
DALLAS, TEXAS
May 19, 2008
OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT
No. 08-NDTX-AUSA-D02


About the Office: The United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas is situated in Dallas with branch offices in Fort Worth, Amarillo, and Lubbock, Texas. The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth are located in North Central Texas about 30 miles apart; Lubbock is in West Texas and Amarillo is located Northwest of Dallas in the Texas Panhandle. Our district has wonderful year round weather and has much to offer in the form of many diverse educational, recreational and cultural activities. If you are a sports fan, our district is where you must be. In our district are major market professional sports teams including the NFL Dallas Cowboys, the NBA Dallas Mavericks, and NHL Dallas Stars. If you are into college sports, in our district we have a number of major colleges and universities. Don’t forget, the annual Cotton Bowl and the University of Texas-Oklahoma University football games are played each year in Dallas. Detailed information may be found at http://www.dallas.com/; http://www.fortworth.com/; http://www.ci.lubbock.tx.us/; and http://www.helloamarillo.com/

Responsibilities and Opportunity Offered:
Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) positions, assigned to work primarily in the Criminal Division, will be filled from this announcement with duty locations in Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock and Amarillo. We want you if you’re committed to performing what is considered a critical service for your country. Make no mistake, the assignments are challenging, but, they offer a great opportunity to apply your experience and skill as an attorney to perform a critical mission. The work involves investigating and prosecuting cases involving firearms, explosives, computer crimes, counterfeiting, fraud, immigration, drug trafficking, terrorist activities, and violent crimes.

Qualifications:

Required qualifications: Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, and be licensed and authorized to practice as an attorney under the laws of a State, territory, or District of Columbia, and have at least 3 years post-J.D. experience. Applicants must be an active member in good standing of the bar (any jurisdiction).

Preferred qualifications: Applicants must demonstrate a quick analytical ability and the ability to accurately and precisely articulate the critical issues in a case. Applicants must possess superior oral and writing communications and courtroom skills, strong research and interpersonal skills; exhibit good judgment; exhibit the ability to work in a supportive and professional team environment with other attorneys, support staff and client agencies; and must have a demonstrated capacity to function, with minimal guidance, in a highly demanding up-tempo work setting.

Travel: Approximately 1-5 days travel per month.

Salary and Benefits

Salary: Is administratively determined based, in part, on the number of years of professional attorney experience and availability of funds at the time you are hired. The range of basic pay is from $42,684 to $112,974 per year, plus locality pay based on the duty location at the current rate of 13.18% to 18.74%.

Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) - Thrift Savings Plan (TSP): You will be enrolled in FERS, which is the basic Federal employee retirement plan. The TSP, a component of your retirement plan, is offered to employees of the U.S. Government. It is similar to 401(k) plans offered to employees in the private sector. The plan provides an excellent way to save and invest “before tax dollars” for retirement. It offers flexibility and allows you to control how your contributions are invested. The Agency will match and contribute up to 5 % of your annual contributions. You may transfer money from your traditional IRA or other qualified plan into your TSP account.

Health Benefits: The Federal Employee’s Health Benefits program provides coverage for you and your family, is outstanding and has no restrictions on pre-existing medical conditions. In addition to general health plans offered under this program, other programs offered include Dental and Vision plans and a Flexible Spending Account program. The Federal Employee’s Group Life Insurance and the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program are also excellent and affordable.

Annual Leave: You will earn from 13 to 26 work days of annual leave each year, generally used for vacations, rest and recuperation, or to attend to personal matters. The amount of leave you will accrue is based on the years of creditable civilian Federal service.
Sick Leave: Employees accrue 13 work days per year. Sick leave may be used when you are ill and unable to work; to receive medical, dental, optical examinations or treatment; provide care for a family member who is incapacitated by a medical or mental condition or to assist a family member who is to receive medical examinations, treatment, or for medical/dental appointments; make arrangements necessitated by the death of a family member or attend the funeral of a family member; and for absence from work due to the adoption of a child.

Relocation Expenses: Relocation expenses will not be paid.

Application Process and Deadline Date: This is an open continuous announcement. Applications will be accepted until further notice. Your application will be kept on file for one year and will receive consideration for employment as vacancies occur for one year from the date of receipt of your application. Please indicate in your application your preferred duty location. After a year, if you desire continued consideration for employment, you must reapply by submission of an updated application. As this will facilitate communications, we prefer and welcome applications sent by email.

Email your application to: Usatxnausa.vacancy@usdoj.gov Applicants not having internet access may send their application to:
United States Attorney’s Office
ATTN: Susan Parker
1100 Commerce Street, Third Floor
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Internet Sites: This and other attorney vacancy announcements can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oarm/attvacancies.html

Department Policies: Assistant United States Attorneys generally must reside in the district to which appointed. See 28 U.S.C. § 545 for district-specific information.

The U.S. Department of Justice is an Equal Opportunity/Reasonable Accommodation Employer. Except where otherwise provided by law, there will be no discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, color, race, religion, national origin, politics, marital status, disability, age, status as a parent, membership or nonmembership in an employee organization, or personal favoritism. The Department of Justice welcomes and encourages applications from persons with physical and mental disabilities. The Department is firmly committed to satisfying its affirmative obligations under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure that persons with disabilities have every opportunity to be hired and advanced on the basis of merit within the Department of Justice. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

It is the policy of the Department to achieve a drug-free workplace and persons selected for employment will be required to pass a drug test which screens for illegal drug use prior to final appointment. Employment is also contingent upon the completion and satisfactory adjudication of a background investigation. Only U.S. citizens are eligible for employment with the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the United States Attorney’s Offices. Unless otherwise indicated in a particular job advertisement, non-U.S. citizens may apply for employment with other organizations, but should be advised that appointments of non-U.S. citizens are extremely rare; such appointments would be possible only if necessary to accomplish the Department's mission and would be subject to strict security requirements. Applicants who hold dual citizenship in the U.S. and another country will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

There is no formal rating system for applying veterans preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of Justice considers veterans preference eligibility as a positive factor in attorney hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans preference are encouraged to include that information in their cover letter or resume’ and attach supporting documentation (e.g., the DD 214 or other substantiating documents) to their submissions.