General Attorney

Summary

Organizational Location: This position is with the Department of Homeland Security, within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Assistant Chief Counsel, located in San Diego, California.

Duties

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This position is with the Office of Assistant Chief Counsel, San Diego, CA. The Office of Chief Counsel is one of the Government's largest and oldest legal offices. OCC attorneys work on cutting-edge legal issues and provide critical advice across the CBP portfolio, including trade enforcement, search and seizure, immigration, and government ethics. They also represent the agency in labor and employment matters and provide litigation support to the Department of Justice.

This position starts at a salary of $85,307.00 (GS-11, Step 1) to $186,785.00 (GS-14, Step 10).

In this position, you will become a key member of the legal team of the Office of Chief Counsel. Typical work assignments include:

• Providing legal guidance to, and legal representation of, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in matters relating to the activities and functions of CBP at the ports of entry (i.e., in the passenger, cargo, airmail, and seaport environments) and between the ports of entry.
• Performing legal research and applying laws, regulations, decisions, and guidance across the CBP portfolio including customs and admissibility (i.e., forced labor enforcement, collection of customs duties, taxes, and fees), border search (i.e., search of electronic devices), immigration laws (i.e., admissibility at the ports of entry), and national security and intelligence.
• Providing ethics guidance and representing U.S. Customs and Border (CBP) in administrative hearings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Merit Systems Protection Board, Federal Labor Relations Authority, administrative law judges, and arbitrators involving matters such as employee discipline, discrimination complaints, collective bargaining agreements, and broker license revocation.
• Supporting the Department of Justice as agency counsel in civil and criminal actions (i.e., FOIA, tort/Bivens, asset forfeiture, immigration, penalty collection) brought in federal court by preparing litigation reports, affidavits, and other pleadings, and participating in eDiscovery, motion drafting, witness interviews, and mediation/settlement discussions.
• Developing and delivering legal training to CBP managers and employees relating to the activities and functions of CBP (i.e., disclosure of information, search and seizure, and investigations) and legal issues involving CBP employees (i.e., ethics, reasonable accommodations, whistleblower protections, Hatch Act).

Qualifications

Applicants must be graduates of a full course of study in a school of law accredited by the American Bar Association, or a law school with state, regional, or other accreditation that permits the graduate to sit for a state bar examination.

Applicants appointed as General Attorneys must be active members in good standing of the bar of a state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Recent law school graduates who are not yet admitted to the bar may be appointed as Law Clerks at the GS-11 level if they meet the specialized education requirements described below. Recent law school graduates appointed as Law Clerks must be admitted to the bar within 14 months of appointment and then may be converted to a General Attorney upon admission.

Specialized Education: Recent law school graduates, and attorneys with less than one year of experience as a licensed attorney, must possess a professional law degree, Juris Doctor or equivalent degree, and demonstrate superior law student work or activities to qualify at the GS-11 level.

Superior law student work or activities may be demonstrated by meeting the following additional qualifications:

• Rank in the top one-third of the graduating class;
• Work or achievement of significance on one of the applicant's law school's official law reviews or journals;
• Winning a moot court competition, membership on a moot court team that represents the applicant's law school in inter-law school competition, or service on the applicant's law school moot court board;
• Full-time or continuous participation in a legal aid program, as distinguished from one-time, intermittent, or casual participation;
• Significant summer law clerk experience;
• Participation in an Office of Chief Counsel or DHS externship program;
• Other evidence of clearly superior legal accomplishment or achievement.

Attorneys with less than one year of experience as a licensed attorney must meet the recent law school graduate qualifications above to qualify at the GS-11 level.

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.

You must meet all qualification requirements, including education if applicable to this position, subject to verification at any stage of the application process by 12/29/2026.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Education

Please see the Qualifications and Required Documents sections for more information if education is applicable to this position.

Additional information

Relocation: Should relocation funding be available, expenses may be offered to the selectee as a lump-sum payment under CBP's Voluntary Relocation Plan test program (VRP) in lieu of any relocation benefits available under the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR), 41 C.F.R., Subtitle F, Chapter 302. New appointees to the Government non-CBP employees are not eligible to participate in the VRP. The amount of the lump-sum payment will vary depending upon whether you rent or own your current residence and whether your residence is a single or multiple-person household. Any relocation expenses incurred that are greater than the VRP lump-sum payment amount will be your responsibility, and no subsequent claims for relocation expenses will be granted by CBP. The lump-sum payment, which will be made through direct deposit, will be treated as wages and, thus, will be subject to all applicable employment tax withholdings. To be eligible for the VRP, you must sign an employment agreement by completing CBP Form 334C-1 at the time of selection. Additional information can be found in CBP Directive 5330-026a, which is available on the CBPNet Policy Page.

Career Progression: As a General Attorney, the full performance level is GS-14. General Attorneys are eligible for promotion to the next GS level after serving a minimum of one year at the GS level and at a minimum, have a "Meets Expectations" performance rating. Once a General Attorney reaches the full performance level of GS-14 and meets time in grade and performance standards, they may compete for a GS-15 position, such as senior attorney or a supervisory attorney position.

Trial/Probationary Period: You may be required to serve a trial/probationary period of 2 years.

Travel: You may be required to travel for this position.

This job is being filled by an alternative hiring process (Excepted Service) and is not in the competitive civil service.

Veterans Preference: There is no formal rating system for applying veteran's preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however the Office of Chief Counsel considers veteran's preference eligibility as a positive factor in the hiring process.

Positions with known promotion potential do not guarantee promotion, nor is the promise of promotion implied.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

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Learn more about OCC's mission, core values and careers at https://careers.cbp.gov/s/career-paths/occ/occ-attorney

Review our benefits