Assistant United States Attorney

USAO Eastern District of Virginia
Civil Division
Attorney
2100 Jamieson Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22314
United States
18-EDVA-13
About the Office: 

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has four offices which are located in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys are assigned to each of these offices to prosecute criminal and litigate civil cases.  The District consists of more than 19,000 square miles and has a population of 5,730,000.  The District has numerous federal agencies (including the Defense Department and the CIA) and military installations.

Job Description: 

An appointment with the U.S. Attorney's Office offers unique and challenging experiences for the highly motivated attorney; an opportunity to work on their own caseload and handle their own trials. Working in the Civil Division, Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) represent the United States' interest in the trial and appellate courts for a wide variety of federal and state litigation, including bankruptcy, civil rights, commercial, constitutional, employment, environmental, federal program, fraud, immigration, medical malpractice, patent, prisoner, social security, summons enforcement, tax, and general tort cases.  The attorney selected for this position will work in the General Litigation Unit of the Civil Division and will primarily focus on representing the United States’ interests in immigration litigation, including both defending immigration-related lawsuits that arise under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Federal Tort Claims Act, Bivens, 28 U.S.C. § 2241, and other civil causes of action, and bringing affirmative civil actions to enforce immigration laws.

All initial attorney appointments to the Department of Justice are made on a 14 month (temporary) basis pending favorable adjudication of a background investigation.  Temporary appointments, may or may not, be made permanent without further competition.

Due to COVID-19, if selected, you may be expected to telework for an undefined period under the Department’s evacuation authority, even if your home is located outside the local commuting area. Employees in this status may be notified of a requirement to report in person to the component workplace with an advance notice of not less than 30 days. Prior to a requirement to report to the workplace, employees may be eligible to request to continue to telework one or more days a pay period depending upon the terms of the component’s telework policy.

Qualifications: 

Required qualifications: Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any U.S. jurisdiction), have at least one-year post-JD legal or other relevant experience, and possess superior oral and written communication skills as well as strong interpersonal skills, exhibit good judgment and function with minimal guidance in a highly demanding environment.

Preferred qualifications: Litigation experience in immigration cases, Administrative Procedure Act cases, or other federal litigation, and/or a federal judicial clerkship is desired.

United States citizenship is required.

Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory pre-employment adjudication.  This includes fingerprint, credit and tax checks, and drug testing.  In addition, continued employment is subject to a favorable adjudication of a background investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys generally must reside in the district to which he or she is appointed or within 25 miles thereof.  See 28 U.S.C. 545 for district-specific information.

Salary: 
Assistant United States Attorneys' pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the number of years of professional attorney experience. The range of basic pay for these positions will be $53,062 to $138,790, plus locality pay.
Travel: 
Travel within and outside the District, including to cover cases in the Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News Divisions, may be required, but should be minimal.
Application Process: 

Please send your resume and writing sample to:

Coleene Rychalski

United States Attorney's Office

Eastern District of Virginia

2100 Jamieson Avenue

Alexandria, VA 22314

No telephone calls please.  Positions are open until filled, but resumes must be received by June 29, 2018.  Please include the vacancy announcement number listed at the top of this announcement (18-EDVA-13) on your resume and all correspondence.

Applicants should familiarize themselves and comply with the relevant rules of professional conduct regarding any possible conflicts of interest in connection with their applications. In particular, please notify this Office if you currently represent clients or adjudicate matters in which this Office is involved and/or you have a family member who is representing clients or adjudicating matters in which this Office is involved so that we can evaluate any potential conflict of interest or disqualification issue that may need to be addressed under those circumstances.

Application Deadline: 
Friday, June 29, 2018
Relocation Expenses: 
Relocation expenses will not be authorized.
Number of Positions: 
One (1)
Updated June 19, 2018

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Department Policies

COVID-19 Vaccination:  Federal agencies may request information regarding the vaccination status of selected applicants for the purposes of implementing other workplace safety protocols, such as protocols related to masking, physical distancing, testing, travel, and quarantine.

Equal Employment Opportunity:  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 race, color, religion, national origin, sex - including gender identity, sexual orientation, or pregnancy status - or because of age (over 40), physical or mental disability, protected genetic information, parental status, marital status, political affiliation, or any other non-merit based factor.  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. For more information, please review our full EEO Statement.

Reasonable Accommodations:  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.

Outreach and Recruitment for Qualified Applicants with Disabilities:  The Department encourages qualified applicants with disabilities, including individuals with targeted/severe disabilities to apply in response to posted vacancy announcements.  Qualified applicants with targeted/severe disabilities may be eligible for direct hire, non-competitive appointment under Schedule A (5 C.F.R. § 213.3102(u)) hiring authority.  Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to contact one of the Department’s Disability Points of Contact (DPOC) to express an interest in being considered for a position. See list of DPOCs.   

Suitability and Citizenship:  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. Congress generally prohibits agencies from employing non-citizens within the United States, except for a few narrow exceptions as set forth in the annual Appropriations Act (see, https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/non-citizens/). Pursuant to DOJ component policies, only U.S. citizens are eligible for employment with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Trustee’s Offices, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unless otherwise indicated in a particular job advertisement, qualifying non-U.S. citizens meeting immigration and appropriations law criteria may apply for employment with other DOJ organizations. However, please be advised that the appointment of non-U.S. citizens is 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. All DOJ employees are subject to a residency requirement. Candidates must have lived in the United States for at least three of the past five years. The three-year period is cumulative, not necessarily consecutive. Federal or military employees, or dependents of federal or military employees serving overseas, are excepted from this requirement. This is a Department security requirement which is waived only for extreme circumstances and handled on a case-by-case basis.

Veterans:  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 must include that information in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., the DD 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty and other supporting documentation) to their submissions. Although the "point" system is not used, per se, applicants eligible to claim 10-point preference must submit Standard Form (SF) 15, Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference, and submit the supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed (visit the OPM website, www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/SF15.pdf for a copy of SF 15, which lists the types of 10-point preferences and the required supporting document(s). Applicants should note that SF 15 requires supporting documentation associated with service- connected disabilities or receipt of nonservice-connected disability pensions to be dated 1991 or later except in the case of service members submitting official statements or retirement orders from a branch of the Armed Forces showing that his  or her retirement was due to a permanent service-connected disability or that he/she was transferred to the permanent disability retired list (the statement or retirement orders must indicate that the disability is 10% or more).

 

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This and other vacancy announcements can be found under Attorney Vacancies and Volunteer Legal Internships. 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.