Law Clerk / General Attorney

You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 0904 Honors Attorney Program Law Clerk Requirements: All applicants MUST: Limited to graduating law students and recent law school graduates who entered judicial clerkships, graduate law programs, or qualifying legal fellowships within nine months of law school graduation. OR Current law school students in their final year of law school or law school graduates within one year of graduation. AND Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and be a United States Citizen. AND Minimum 3.3 grade point average (4.0 scale, or equivalent). If a school does not use a GPA system, a class rank is permissible. 0905 Honors Attorney Program Attorney Basic Requirements: All applicants MUST: Meet the Honors Attorney Program Law Clerk Requirements; AND Meet the minimum education requirements of successful completion of a full course of study in a school of law accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) with a professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.); AND Must be a current, active member in good standing of the bar of a state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS: GS-0905-11 Qualifications: Law School Graduates: Law school graduates are individuals who have completed law school and have been awarded a law degree from an accredited law school. Law school graduates may preserve their eligibility to apply to the HAP for not more than two years following law school graduation (i.e., a spring 2022 law school graduate must both remain eligible and apply to the HAP not later than the 2023 application deadline for a fall 2024 start date).Law school graduates MUST preserve their eligibility by starting an “eligibility preserving activity” (see examples below within nine months of law school graduation. Generally speaking, eligibility preserving activities are approximately one year in duration, but they can be longer (e.g., a two-year clerkship, an 18-month fellowship). Short-term (e.g., less than nine month) “bridge the gap” fellowships designed to assist recent law school graduates to gain legal experience while seeking full-time employment do not qualify as “eligibility preserving activities.” However, a recent graduate who participates in such a fellowship, but also starts an eligibility preserving activity within nine months of law school graduation is not disqualified by such participation. DOE reserves the right to determine whether candidates have preserved their eligibility, and may choose to rely on the U.S. Department of Justice’s eligibility guidelines when appropriate. Judicial Clerkships: Judicial clerkships (any U.S. jurisdiction) are qualifying eligibility preserving activities. An applicant can have multiple clerkships or combine judicial clerkships with other prior or subsequent eligibility-preserving activities (e.g., fellowships, graduate law programs). Qualifying Full-time Legal Fellowships: There are an increasing number of legal fellowships that may preserve eligibility. Due to the wide variety of programs, DOE cannot provide an exclusive list. Candidates will be asked to provide specific information about the fellowship in order to permit DOE to determine whether eligibility was preserved. Full-time legal fellowships may be paid or unpaid, and are subject to the same requirements as other eligibility preserving activities (see above). “Experience” refers to paid and unpaid experience. Examples of qualifying unpaid experience may include: volunteer work done through National Service programs (such as Peace Corps and AmeriCorps); as well as work for other community-based philanthropic and social organizations. Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills; and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. CTAP/ICTAP candidates: To be considered “well qualified” you must (1) meet all of the requirements as described in this section; and 2) be rated “well-qualified”, which is defined as scoring in the in Well Qualified category (or higher). You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
**Remote Restricted to Washington, D.C. area** The Office of the General Counsel is seeking motivated and highly-qualified candidates for our Honors Attorney Program to start in Fall 2025. During the three-year program, attorneys will gain firsthand exposure to cutting-edge legal issues in various areas of practice.