Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

?Conducting research, drafting, organization and analytical tasks in support of regional National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices.
?Assisting in the preparation of both administrative and judicial enforcement cases under several federal environmental and species acts.
?Assisting in defensive litigation by preparing filings and legal memoranda, organizing pleadings and maintaining a computerized database to track enforcement cases.
?Performing research using Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw and other libraries and working with other statutes, regulations and policies affecting NOAA.
?Serving as property custodian, maintaining the library and occasionally performing back-up administrative support for the office.

Degree: Undergraduate degree or higher, depending on experience and/or postgraduate education
Experience: A year of specialized experience related to the job duties
Software: Word Perfect or Word; internet browsers such as Firefox or Internet Explorer; experience using Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, Pacer, and/or other electronic legal resources
Special Skills: Understanding of judicial and administrative law processes, legal terminology and library research, the history of legislation and regulation; demonstrate experience of various environmental statutes; demonstrate experience independently processing complex responses to requests under FOIA, ensure compliance of files with the Federal Records Act; demonstrate coordinating actions with other Federal or State agencies.

For detailed instructions on how to submit an application for a federal government job, see ?How to Apply?.

I?m relieved to hear that you don?t have to be a ?policy wonk? (according to Forbes) to get hired by the federal government. However, you do have to be smarter than the average bear to get through the application process.