Paralegal Specialist

Job Description

Paralegal Specialist | Executive Office for Immigration Review

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice. The Executive Office administers and interprets federal immigration laws, providing fair and efficient immigration adjudications. This role is crucial for ensuring the smooth and accurate processing of immigration cases, directly supporting Administrative Immigration Judges (AIJs) and the Board of Immigration Appeals in upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

The TL;DR
• Role: Early Career
• Type: Full-time
• Mission: To provide essential paralegal support for the adjudication of immigration cases, ensuring legal accuracy and efficient case processing.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Case Screening: Screen and review case files to identify and record legal issues, then process and move screened cases based on their review.
• Legal Research: Perform extensive and thorough legal research into applicable laws, legislative history, precedent-setting cases, decisions, and opinions.
• Document Drafting: Draft administrative decisions for review by AIJs, and prepare responses to motions and notice letters for parties before the Board.
• Technical Support: Provide technical assistance to staff, attorneys, managers, and AIJs throughout case processing and adjudication, and respond to case status inquiries.
• Deadline Monitoring: Monitor the case management system to ensure adherence to judicial and internal deadlines.

The Must-Haves
• Background: This role requires a background in legal support with a focus on immigration matters. For the GS-09 level, candidates must have either a master’s or equivalent graduate degree, two years of progressively higher-level graduate education, or an LL.B. or J.D. in a directly related field. For the GS-11 level, a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, three years of progressively higher-level graduate education, or an LL.M. in a directly related field is required.
• Experience:
* For GS-09: At least one year (52 weeks, full-time) of specialized work experience equivalent to the GS-07 level performing 3 or more of the following: drafting judicial papers or responses to motions; evaluating judicial orders or legal documents for case law compliance; entering data into case management systems; and obtaining factual information or research through face-to-face meetings with legal support personnel.
* For GS-11: At least one year (52 weeks, full-time) of specialized work experience equivalent to the GS-09 level performing 3 or more of the following: writing analyses and/or legal memoranda from research results; performing legal research into laws, legislative history, precedent cases, decisions or opinions; creating user-defined reports for legal matters; and advising or explaining factual information or research to the public face-to-face.
• Skills: Legal research, legal document drafting, case management system operation, data entry, and effective communication for advising and explaining legal information.
• Bonus: Commitment to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, upholding the rule of law, and adhering to the United States Constitution.