Date Announced: 11-22-2024

Closing Date: 12-02-2024

Command: CNIC

Grade: GS-13/14

Type: Assistant Counsel, Joint Region Marianas


The Navy and Marine Corps team offers innovative, exciting and meaningful work linking military and civilian talents to achieve our mission and safeguard our freedoms.  The Department of the Navy (DON) Office of the General Counsel (OGC) has been serving the Department since 1941 and is committed to developing innovative legal solutions to the business and other challenges facing the Navy and Marine Corps to enhance the war fighting capability of the Naval Service.  You will find our attorneys stationed across the United States and worldwide, working with Navy and Marine Corps personnel wherever the Department's business is conducted.  DON OGC also offers a great place to build a career.  Based on the DON OGC annual employee survey, DON OGC attorneys consistently report the highest marks for workforce collegiality, cooperation, and meaningful, high quality work.

There is an anticipated vacancy for an attorney to serve as an Assistant Counsel within the Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) Office of General Counsel (OGC). This position is located in Piti, Guam at Joint Region Marianas, and reports directly to the Region Counsel who serves as legal advisor to the Commander, Joint Region Marianas. The Region Counsel reports to the CNIC OGC, Washington Navy Yard, Washington D.C., which is under the general supervision and coordination of the Department of the Navy (DON) OGC and provides legal services to CNIC and its Region activities.

CNIC’s mission is to provide consistent, effective, and efficient shore installation services and support to sustain and improve current and future Fleet readiness and mission execution. As an Echelon III command, JRM is one of the ten Navy Regions reporting to CNIC and executes CNIC mission by coordinating base operating support for Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps installations and activities located on Guam and throughout the Marianas Islands.

The JRM Counsel office is comprised of four attorneys, including the subject position, and one paralegal. Legal advice is provided on a full range of issues encountered by the clients, with a concentration in (in no particular order) environmental law; civilian personnel law; fiscal law (matters stemming from appropriated funds and non-appropriated funds); international law (within the context of the U.S. responsibilities under the Compacts of Free Association); business and commercial law involving the acquisition of supplies and services to include interagency agreements; real and personal property law; administrative law resulting from operations and responsibilities associated with operating military installations; ethics and standards of conduct; and, the law of information disclosure (Freedom of Information Act (FOIA /Privacy Act (PA) matters).

The successful candidate will primarily provide legal support across the full range of OGC practice areas, with an emphasis in environmental law. The successful candidate’s duties will include advising clients and rendering legal opinions on a variety of environmental and historic preservations laws, to include: The Religious Freedom Protection Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Executive Order 12114, Coast Zone Management Act, Magnusson-Stevens Fisheries Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, Oil Pollution Act of 1990, Safe Drinking water Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response and Liability Act, Native Americans Graves Protect and Repatriation Act, and other cultural historical, and natural resources acts. The successful candidate will actively engage clients throughout the environmental planning processes to provide advice, recommend alternatives, and inform the clients about applicable laws, regulations, and policies. Additional duties may include providing advice and guidance in the areas of fiscal law, acquisition, Government Ethics/Standards of Conduct, Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act matters and other administrative law matters resulting from operations and responsibilities of operating large military installations.

The position will be filled under the General Schedule (GS) at the GS-13, or GS-14 level depending on the qualifications of the successful applicant, and the needs of the office, and funding availability. Among qualified applicants, preference may be given to hiring the best-qualified applicant at a lower grade. To be eligible for selection at the GS-13 level, the applicant must have in excess of two years of successful relevant legal experience. To be eligible for selection at the GS-14 level, the applicant must have at least three and one-half years of successful relevant legal experience. The position has a full performance level and promotion potential to GS-14.

1. The depth, breadth and quality of their recent and relevant legal experience in the environmental and land use practice areas;
2. The depth, breadth and quality of their recent and relevant legal experience in the other practice areas listed above;
3. Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems and provide effective advice;
4. Interpersonal skills necessary to work cooperatively and effectively on difficult tasks under significant time constraints with people of diverse interests;
5. Their interpersonal skills, including their ability to establish strong and effective attorney-client relationships; and,
6. Their ability to work both independently and as part of a team; and,
7. Their success contributing to a legal team/organization. General litigation experience will be considered.

The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.

https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/privacy-act