Legal Assistant GS 6 - 7

Summary

You will serve as a Legal Assistant for the US Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center - PDC in Fort Worth, Texas. This position serves as a member of the legal services staff responsible for one or more aspects of creating loan closing documents, appointment setting, collateral processing, and disbursing loan funds to borrowers.

Duties

As a Legal Assistant at the GS-0986-6/7, some of your typical work assignments may include:

• Review legal or loan documents for completeness, accuracy, and compliance to assist individual borrowers with residential and/or business loans.
• Perform clerical functions, which include answering inquiries promptly, handling sensitive information securely and professionally, and dealing with controversial issues tactfully.
• Present information clearly and professionally, produce well-written grammatically correct, error-free materials, and contact colleagues or external customers regarding inquiries.
• Use computer and other electronic equipment to produce written reports, spreadsheets, emails, and other documents or reports.

Requirements/Conditions of Employment

• U.S. citizenship is required.
• Favorable background investigation and credit check are required.
• You may be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
• This is not a bargaining unit position.

Qualifications

Individual Occupational Requirements

There are no Individual Occupational Requirements for this series.

Generally, time in Non-Pay status is not creditable towards the specialized experience requirement listed below.
You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
You may qualify based on experience, education or a combination of both.

Experience:
To receive credit, you must indicate the month and year as well as the average hours worked per week for each employer. Average work hours must be stated on the resume to quantify each period of work experience or that experience will not be credited toward meeting the specialized experience requirement.
You must address the specific specialized experience required for each grade level of this position on your resume or application or you will be rated "Ineligible" for that grade level.

GS-06: To qualify you must have at least 1 full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-05 level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skill, and ability to perform successfully in this position. This experience may have been gained in a Non-Federal service position. In addition, this Specialized Experience must demonstrate the following:

• Communicating clear and concise information to management, co-workers, or outside parties in a courteous and professional manner;
• Using desktop computers and software programs to prepare and/or update documents, such as correspondence, electronic spreadsheets, or databases in the performance of daily duties;
• Maintaining or safeguarding documents/records containing sensitive or confidential information in a business environment, such as documents containing personal financial information or Personally Identifiable Information (PII); AND
• Preparing or proofing legal documents.

GS-07: To qualify you must have at least 1 full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-06 level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skill, and ability to perform successfully in this position. This experience may have been gained in a Non-Federal service position. In addition, this Specialized Experience must demonstrate the following:

• Communicating clear and concise information to management, co-workers, or outside parties in a courteous and professional manner;
• Using desktop computers and software programs to prepare and/or update documents, such as correspondence, electronic spreadsheets, or databases in the performance of daily duties;
• Maintaining or safeguarding documents/records containing sensitive or confidential information in a business environment, such as documents containing personal financial information or Personally Identifiable Information (PII);
• Preparing or proofing legal documents; AND
• Reviewing for completeness (or processing) loan closing documents and/or real estate documents.

Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on OPM's Qualifications website:

General Schedule Qualification Standards (opm.gov)

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g. Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). 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.
 

Education

Education: GS-6/7 Generally not applicable. However, graduate education may be credited in those few instances where the graduate education is directly related to the work of the position.