Land Law Examiner

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS: (OPM Operating Manual, Qualification Standards for Administrative and Management Positions). Basic Requirements Graduate Education: For GS-7: Applicants can qualify for GS-7 based on graduate education (including law school) that included or was supplemented by 12 semester hours of course work related to the administration of land laws. Examples include course work in land surveying, cartography, land use law, real estate law, land appraising, land use planning, water rights, mining laws, or legal instrument review and interpretation. Applicants who qualify for GS-7 on the basis of the superior academic achievement provision must have had at least 12 semester hours of course work related to the administration of land laws. For GS-9 and above: Major study — fields such as those described above for GS-7. For some positions, graduate study alone may not provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the work. Applicants for such positions may be required to have specialized experience at the appropriate grade level. OR Experience: Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): Experience in or directly related to examination or adjudication of cases involving laws and regulations dealing with lands and resources. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Adjudication or examination of applications and claims for the disposal, use of, or title to public lands, issuance of leases, licenses, or permits for land or resources use, and resolving conflicts arising from use. General practice of law that included substantial involvement in examinations of titles or other legal transactions involving acquisition, lease, or disposal of land. Title searching, abstracting, or interpreting land records, survey plats, or tract indexes and books, provided the work demonstrated an understanding of the laws, regulations, and policies associated with land management programs. Work as a land appraiser that involved appraisal of undeveloped or marginal-type land. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants who meet the following experience requirement in addition to the Basic Requirements listed above may qualify for- Grade (9): Education: master’s or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., if related. Specialized Experience: 1 year equivalent to at least GS-7: Work involving implementation and applying of various federal, state, and Indian Land laws precedent decisions, legal records, regulations, program manuals and handbooks, Bureau and Departmental procedures and related instruction in order to perform accurate records searches and making recommended decisions. Work involving implementation of land surveying terminology and ability to read and search for legal land descriptions, and accurately determine surface and mineral ownership status from surface and quad maps, Master Title Plats, court decisions, commercial legal publications, and other related manuals and guidance. Examples of work experience include responsibility for performing and the ability to interpret various laws, IBIA cases, Executive Orders, and agency regulations, and to determine if criteria for special conditions, applications, or requests are met; as well as the knowledge of applicable conveyance documents, rules, regulations, procedures, and instructions to determine if criteria for covenants, conditions, reservations, and language are met for special conditions or unusual patent. Providing guidance and information of the effects of various land reservations, segregations, withdrawals, acquisitions, authorizations, and disposals to properly take corrective action. Provide guidance of administrative review procedures to process appeals and to ensure that conveyances laws regulations and policies are applied to ensure resource protection. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing in discussing or presenting information. Utilize computer equipment and several software applications to input, manipulate, update, and maintain data and request reports. Grade (11): Education: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related Specialized Experience: 1 year equivalent to at least GS-9: Comprehensive knowledge of the broad array of federal, state, Indian land and real property laws, and related regulations, policies, manuals and directives in order to properly process and adjudicate the most complex, unusual and unprecedented cases. This includes Special Acts of Congress, as well as laws that are very old or seldom used. Examples of specialized experience includes the thorough knowledge in all subject areas of real property title law to include encumbrances, including mortgages, financing statements, liens of all types; leasing surface, sub-surface; probate and non-probate conveyances and other judicial procedures; condemnation; declarations of taking; succession and descent; wills, federal and state land patents; acknowledgements; abstracts; title insurance; boundaries; surveying; plats; and including but not limited to; legal descriptions; rights of way and other easements, including those acquired by prescription; subordination’s; eminent domain; administrative law and procedures; contracts; adverse possession; accretion and reliction; riparian rights; freehold and lesser estates in land; mineral rights; and standards of property title law. Provide guidance and information to research, analyze and interpret technical points of law relating to real property titles in all standard legal reference works including statutes, codes, digests, reported case law, treaties, law journals, legal encyclopedias, texts; Sheppards Citator, Attorney General opinions, Department of the Interior Decisions, and Code of Federal Regulations, past and current. Provide guidance and implementation of the Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act as they apply to records/data with the Trust Programs including but not limited to Land Titles and Records. Comprehensive knowledge of the legal and judicial reference system relating to leasable, locatable, and saleable minerals in order to lease proficiently and accurately license, patent, permit, sell, and exchange these minerals, and to provide expert advice and guidance to others. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing in discussing or presenting in order to convey decisions on applications; to provide responses to questions from other examiners, the public, and other agencies; and to justify decisions on very complex or controversial adjudications. Utilize computer equipment and several software applications to input, manipulate, update, maintain data and request reports, and identify potential issues and address to contractor. All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Merit Promotion candidates must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the announcement closing date. Preference in filling vacancies is given to qualified Indian candidates in accordance with the Indian Preference Act of 1934 (title 25, USC Section 472). Additional selections may be made from this announcement if identical vacancies occur in the same location within 90 days from the closing date.
This position is located with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rocky Mountain Region in Billings, Montana. This position provides Leads assistance in the implementation on training new employees, refresher training, and guidance of any special projects in LTRO. This is a Bargaining Unit position, for more information see USA Jobs What are bargaining units?