Legal Assistant

01Education

GL-07 and GL-08: As a general rule, education is not creditable above GL-05 for most positions covered by this standard; however, graduate education may be credited in those few instances where the graduate education is directly related to the work of the position. OR Experience: GL-07 and GL-08: You must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade level.

To be creditable, this experience must have equipped the applicant with the particular qualifications to perform successfully the duties of the position and must typically be in or related to the position to be filled. Some examples of this qualifying experience are: GL-07: Experience in receiving and processing legal instruments, to include checking for correct form, timeliness, policy compliance, establishing and tracking suspense dates, and determining what actions are necessary.

Experience in researching and gathering legal information and documentation from files and records, policies, regulations and statutes, witness interviews, databases, and/or other sources. Experience in recognizing issues that must be dealt with timely, promptly, discreetly, sensitively, and confidentially.

GL-08: Experience with specialized legal terminology on citations related to the policies and statutes regarding administrative remedies, tort claims, and release for information requests, including understanding and recognition of their significance. Experience distinguishing between a variety of legal instruments including petitions and complaints, Habeas, Bivens, Tort, Mandamus and various injunctive relief requests, requests for production, interrogatories, and requests for admissions.

Experience reviewing and/or drafting responses to Freedom of Information and Privacy Act requests, Administrative Remedies, and Tort Claims, proofreading for content, accuracy, policy compliance, typographical and grammatical errors, etc. If applicable, credit will be given for paid and unpaid experience.

To receive proper credit, you must show the actual time (such as the number of hours worked per week) spent in activities. Your eligibility for consideration will be based on your responses to the questions in the application.

Serves as a Legal Assistant with primary responsibility to include analysis of, response to, and monitoring of requests submitted under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts, Administrative Remedy Appeals, and claims submitted under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Civilian Employee Compensation and Bureau of Prisons Claims Acts (FTCA/CECA/BOPCA), and inmate property claims.

Receives service of legal documents, reviews for correct form and timeliness; annotates case files and suspense files to reflect due dates and notifies appropriate legal staff to ensure timely responses are made.

Performs a variety of administrative support duties, such as assembling information for various reports, briefings, conferences, designing and organizing filing systems, planning and arranging the maintenance and preparation of information needed for inter- or intra-office reports, making travel arrangements for legal staff, and completing Time and Attendance reports. Along with all other correctional institution employees, incumbent is charged with responsibility for maintaining security of the institution.

The staffs correctional responsibilities precede all others required by this position and are performed on a regular and recurring basis.