Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives
Office of the Chief Counsel
Attorney Advisor (General)
GS-905-15
Columbus, OH – Detroit, MI
Los Angeles, CA – San Francisco, CA
About the Office: The Office of the Chief Counsel, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) supports the Bureau’s mission by providing legal advice concerning the administration and enforcement of the Federal laws relating to firearms, explosives, and arson.
Who May Apply: Applications will be accepted from all qualified U. S. citizens. You need not be a current or former Federal employee to apply; however you must be a U. S. citizen.
Location: These positions are located in Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Los Angeles, California, and San Francisco, California
Responsibilities and Opportunity Offered: The incumbent serves as Division Counsel in a Field Division and is responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating the legal work of the Division. Serves as legal advisor to management officials and functions as a team leader to staff attorneys and assigns cases. Provides counsel for Government proceedings to deny, disapprove, revoke, or suspend licenses or permits. Makes recommendations to the Associate Chief Counsel regarding appeals and settlements, litigations, and claims. Identifies developmental and training needs of the staff. Prepares recommendations of alleged violations of laws and advises/assists the United States Attorneys in criminal and civil cases. Provides legal training for Field Division personnel, members of the regulated industries, and Federal, State, and local law enforcement personnel. Seeks forfeiture of property involved in violation of ATF-enforced statues.
Required Qualifications: All candidates for this position must possess a J.D. degree, and be an active member in good standing of the bar (any state or territory, or the District of Columbia) AND have at least 1 full year of specialized experience as a practicing attorney equivalent to the GS-14 level.
Preferred Qualifications: In addition to the required qualifications, the applicant must possess specialized experience which has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledges, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. Specialized experience for this position includes:
1. The ability to analyze, interpret, and apply laws, regulations, contracts, agency orders, court decisions, agency and office opinions, and other legal documents.
2. Superior research, analytical, writing, and oral communication skills.
3. The capacity to function with substantial independence as a sole practitioner handling an extremely demanding case load, while functioning as a team member in a multi-office Associate Chief Counsel regional operation.
4. Significant experience and/or knowledge in at least one of the following practice areas is required: criminal practice and procedure, civil practice and procedure, litigation, training, and/or direct services to policy makers in a client organization.
Travel: Frequent travel within the assigned area is required. Nationwide travel is required on occasion.
Salary Information: GS-15 - $95,390 – 124,010 Base Salary (Locality Pay to be added depending on rate in the assigned area).
Relocation Expenses: Travel and relocation expenses are not authorized. Applicants will not be reimbursed for travel and relocation expenses.
Submission Process and Deadline Date: Send any required supplemental documentation following the “Faxing Supporting Documentation” instructions in the USAJOBS vacancy announcement (09-MER-0027-MGT) which will provide you the necessary cover sheets for each of your documents so that they will be correctly submitted to the appropriate vacancy announcement. The fax number will be available on the cover sheet.
Applications must be received by the closing date of this announcement, which is December 2, 2008.
If you have questions or are unable to submit your application through USAJOBS, please contact: Marge Tangenberg at 202-648-8839.
NOTE: To prevent being locked out of Quikhire, which is geared to accept only Competitive Service applicants, please follow the instructions below:
When responding to the Core Questions in the USAJOBS Vacancy Announcement in Step 2 of the application process, QUESTION #5, please select - DOJ (ATF). Since this position is in the Excepted Service, under QUESTION #8, please select - COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT.
Internet Sites: www.atf.gov (Use this internet site to access the on-line application)
Other attorney vacancy announcements can be found at:
http://10.173.2.12/oarm/attvacancies.html and
http://www.usdoj.gov/oarm/attvacancies.html
Department Policies: The Department of Justice cannot control further dissemination and/or posting of information contained in this vacancy announcement. Such posting and/or dissemination is not an endorsement by the Department of the organization or group disseminating and/or posting the 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 because of color, race, religion, national origin, politics, marital status, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, membership or nonmembership in an employee organization, or on the basis of 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. 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. Dual citizens of 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.