Legal Careers
Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA)
Washington 20530 - United States
The Civil Division handles both affirmative and defensive civil litigation in both trial and appellate courts. The Division is seeking an exceptional attorney to join our team as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the Civil Division to specialize and focus on Affirmative Civil Rights and Environment Justice litigation.
For more information on the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney's Offices, visit http://www.justice.gov/careers/careers.html
As the federal agency whose mission is to ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans, the Department of Justice is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. To build and retain a workforce that reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of the American people, we welcome applicants from the many communities, identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, religions, and cultures of the United States who share our commitment to public service.
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is seeking an exceptional, experienced attorney to join our team as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the Civil Division.
This position is a career-defining role that demands passion, commitment, and an unwavering dedication to justice. The attorney who fills this position will represent the United States in affirmative civil rights and environmental justice enforcement investigations and cases, including housing and fair lending, ADA enforcement, the Civil Rights of Institutional Persons Act, voting rights, service members' rights, pattern and practice investigations, human trafficking, and employment discrimination.
Collaboration is key to our success. The selectee will work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and Office of Environmental Justice, making impactful decisions and ensuring justice for all. But the impact of this role goes beyond litigation: you will also be an ambassador for justice in our community, work closely with agency partners, and participate in outreach events throughout the District of Columbia to promote civil rights and environmental justice.
Civil AUSAs, including the attorney filling this position, must serve as effective and dedicated advocates for the government's interests, timely and efficiently pursue the just resolution of their assigned cases, and make sound and legally supportable decisions toward those ends. They must possess the foresight and organizational and legal skills needed to manage a large and diverse caseload that involves lengthy and difficult investigations and litigation. They must be able to identify the relevant legal and factual issues in their assigned cases, and to develop and implement effective strategies for all proceeding in those cases, including motions practice, discovery, alternative dispute resolution, trial, and appeal. They must be able to work well with colleagues, supervisors, support staff, and other participants in litigation such as court personnel, opposing counsel, agency counsel, and witnesses. They must have strong legal research skills, be able to produce high quality written work even under deadline pressure and be a persuasive oral advocate.
In addition to the foregoing, the attorney filling this Affirmative Civil Rights focused position is expected to be highly organized and have strong leadership skills and an exceptional ability to engage in productive and professional communications with everyone, including high-ranking Department officials, supervisors, colleagues, support staff, judges, court personnel, opposing counsel, mediators, agency representatives, witnesses, and community members. Additionally, the attorney filling this position must be a self-starter and creative-traits that are necessary to be proactive and ensure that investigations continue to proceed in a reasonable and prompt manner without firm deadlines.
Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.
Security Requirements: Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory preemployment 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.
Residency Requirements: 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.
Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. See www.sss.gov.
Conditions of Employment
- You must be a United States Citizen or National.
- Initial appointment is conditioned upon a satisfactory preemployment adjudication. This includes fingerprint, credit and tax checks, and drug testing. Continued employment is subject to a favorable adjudication of a background investigation.
- You must be registered for Selective Service, if applicable.
- J.D. degree and active member of the bar (any U.S. jurisdiction) required.
- Must reside in the district to which appointed or within 25 miles thereof. See 28 U.S.C. 545 for district specific information.
Read more about the recruitment listed above at: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/737104900
The ideal candidate will have outstanding legal ability, high moral character, mature judgment, a keen desire for public service, and an exceptional aptitude for litigation.
Preferred Qualifications:
The preferred candidate will have at least one to five years of federal litigation and investigatory experience, ideally in areas of civil rights or environmental justice enforcement, and demonstrate an ability to perform the above noted duties in an outstanding manner. The preferred candidate will have experience leading complex investigations and the demonstrated ability to identify strong cases to pursue. The preferred candidate should be comfortable taking and defending depositions of lay and expert witnesses, working with expert witnesses, including locating expert witnesses, and preparing expert witness disclosures. The preferred candidate will have an outstanding academic record and litigation experience, including excellent legal research and writing skills and superb computer and data skills.
Applicants must possess a J.D. Degree, be duly licensed and authorized to practice as an attorney under the laws of any state, territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, and have at least +3 - 5 years post-J.D. experience in the practice of law.
Applicants must be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction) in good standing.
United States citizenship is required.
You must meet all qualification requirements upon the closing date of this announcement.
To apply for this position, you must complete the occupational questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below.
The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 07/27/2023 to receive consideration.
1. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.
2. Click the Submit My Answers button to submit your application package. (It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation are submitted prior to the closing date.)
You must provide a complete Application Package which includes:
- Required - Your responses to the Online Occupational Questionnaire (This is completed automatically during the apply online process).
- Required - Your resume showing relevant experience and dates of employment (include day/month/year). (cover letter optional).
- Required, if applicable - To get Veterans' Preference, you must indicate your preference in response to the appropriate question in your assessment questionnaire and you must submit the appropriate supporting documentation. See the "How you will be Evaluated" section for details regarding what is appropriate Veterans' Preference documentation. It is also recommended that you include veterans' preference information in your cover letter or resume.
3. To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.
You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application. However, should you not be able to apply online, please contact Ann Lawrence at 202-252-6695 or email Ann.Lawrence@usdoj.gov, prior to the closing date of this announcement to request an alternate method of applying.
AUSA pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the number of years of professional attorney experience. The range of basic pay is $63,734 to $155,155 not including locality pay or $84,441 to $183,400 which includes 32.49% locality pay.
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Department Policies
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 their retirement was due to a permanent service-connected disability or that they were transferred to the permanent disability retired list (the statement or retirement orders must indicate that the disability is 10% or more).
USAO Residency Requirement: Assistant United States Attorneys must reside in the district to which appointed or within 25 miles thereof. See 28 U.S.C. 545 for district specific information.
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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.