Surface Transportation Board
Attorney Advisor (Agency Law)
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Summary
The Office of Personnel Management has not issued qualification standards for attorney positions. However, STB sets minimum qualifications for attorney positions and sets forth these qualifications for this position. Therefore, you must possess the following minimum qualifications before the closing date of this posting: Professional law degree (LL.B., J.D., LL.M.) from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA); Upon entering duty, current membership in good standing of the bar of a state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia. Proof of bar membership will be required before entering on duty. All candidates must demonstrate through their application documents: excellent research and writing skills, incisive legal analytical ability, and strong oral advocacy and presentation skills. AND Specialized Experience: GS-12 Level GS-12 candidates must have one year of professional legal experience: analyzing statutes, regulations, and decisional law, and presenting those analyses and relevant legal or policy issues for decision. Federal clerkships count towards creditable experience. GS-13 Level GS-13 candidates must have two years of professional legal experience: analyzing statutes, regulations, and decisional law, and presenting those analyses and relevant legal or policy issues for decision and resolving disputes. Federal clerkships count towards creditable experience. GS-14 Level GS-14 candidates must have three years of professional legal experience: analyzing statutes, regulations, and decisional law, and presenting those analyses and relevant legal or policy issues for decision and resolving disputes. Candidates must possess a legal background in transportation, economics, administrative law, or government regulation. Federal clerkships count towards creditable experience. GS-15 Level GS-15 candidates must have four years of professional legal experience: analyzing statutes, regulations, and decisional law, and presenting those analyses and relevant legal or policy issues for decision and resolving disputes in support of an efficient, competitive, and economically viable surface transportation network. Candidates at this level will also have experience providing advice on complex technical issues concerning rail transportation. Federal clerkships count towards creditable experience. We will consider only candidates who submit complete application packages (writing sample, cover letter, transcripts, and a resume). In describing your experience, please be clear and specific. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience or education. Only experience and education obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered. Please Note: Your resume cannot exceed two pages - you will be deemed ineligible and receive no further consideration if your resume exceeds two pages ( see USAJOBS for formatting requirements ). Include relevant employment history as outlined below for each job: Name, address, telephone number, email address; Job Title (if Federal Service, provide series and grade; if not in GS plan, provide GS equivalent grade); To receive full consideration for specialized experience, please list month/year to month/day/year (MM/DD/YY - MM/DD/YY) or month/day/year to present (MM/DD/YY-present); Hours worked per week (if other than full time); If qualifying based on related unpaid (e.g. volunteer service) experience, you must provide hours worked per week and beginning/ending dates (MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY); Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination; and PLEASE NOTE: If you submit multiple resumes, only the latest uploaded resume will be reviewed. If a determination cannot be made about the length of your creditable experience for qualification requirements, you will be removed from consideration.
Major Duties
The major duties of this position are researching and drafting decisions in proceedings before the Board. The Board adjudicates, among others, the following types of proceedings: complaints of unreasonable railroad rates or practices; declaratory orders; licensing of rail line constructions, acquisitions, and abandonments; railroad mergers and acquisitions; and proceedings under the Board's jurisdiction over motor carriers, water carriage in the noncontiguous domestic trade, and certain pipelines. In preparing draft decisions, the selected attorney will review the record before the agency and apply the relevant statutes, regulations, policies, and case law. Board decisions include summaries of relevant evidence, analysis of salient legal issues, and findings of fact, conclusions of law, and determinations of actions to be taken by the Board. The selected attorney also will lead meetings with staff from other offices within the Board to develop recommendations for resolving Board proceedings, lead briefings of the Board members to present staff recommendations, and draft legal memoranda, correspondence, or other materials as assigned. If you are selected at a grade lower than the highest shown in this listing, you will be placed under a career development plan and can be non-competitively promoted when you successfully complete the requirements for the higher grade. This is a non-bargaining unit position.
Requirements
U.S. Citizenship is required. All qualification requirements must be met prior to the position closing. A complete application package will consist of a Cover Letter, Resume (Maximum 2-page limit), and a redacted Writing Sample (10 pages or less). Your application package will not receive consideration if it lacks any of the required documents under the "Resume" tab. Trial Period: A two-year trial period will be required. Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. See http://www.sss.gov/ Background Suitability Investigation: Continued employment is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a background investigation and the granting of a Federal suitability or security clearance. If selected, you may be offered tentative employment until the background investigation has been fully adjudicated. E-Verify: If you are selected for this position, the documentation that you present for purposes of completing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Form 1-9 will be verified through the DHS "E-Verify" System. The STB is an E- Verify Participant. Employment is contingent upon the satisfactory completion of a background investigation and the granting of a Federal suitability clearance. If selected, you may be offered a tentative offer until the background investigation has been adjudicated. Relocation expenses are not authorized.
Required Documents
Please be advised that the following documents are required even if you are already a current Federal or STB employee: Cover letter indicating why you are applying for this position and why you believe you ought to be selected. (Note: Your Cover Letter must be 2 pages or less) Resume that includes the experience you wish to be considered for the review of your qualifications, the dates of employment with month and year, and hours worked per week, if part-time. Resumes that do not contain all of the necessary information to determine qualifications may be marked as insufficient and applicants may not receive consideration for this position. Your latest resume submission is the one that will be used to determine your qualifications. Please Note: Your resume cannot exceed two pages - you will be deemed ineligible and receive no further consideration if your resume exceeds two pages ( see USAJOBS for formatting requirements ). Include relevant employment history as outlined below for each job: Official position title (if Federal, include series/grade), Employer name and contact information, Start and end dates (for full consideration, you must include month, day, and year), Indicate full-time or number of hours worked per week if part-time, and A list of duties performed and accomplishments. 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. Responses to questionnaire. Writing Sample: applicants MUST include an unedited or lightly edited writing sample that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of the position and illustrates your ability to conduct complex legal research and analysis. Selected extracts of larger documents are acceptable. If appropriate, please attach an explanatory cover memo to your writing sample. DO NOT submit any sensitive or classified documents or documents containing personally identifiable information (PII). The writing Sample should be redacted and must not exceed 10 pages. Transcripts: You MUST provide transcripts or other documentation to support your educational claims. Unless otherwise stated: (1) unofficial transcripts are acceptable, or (2) you may submit a list with all your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement. Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application before final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents. Uploading documents to USAJobs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system. You must verify that the documents are in the system with your application prior to final submission.
How to Apply
Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. For guidance on how to apply to this position, use the following link: How to Create an Application To apply for this position, you must complete the occupational questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Resume section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 09/18/2026 to receive consideration. To verify your application is complete, log in to your USAJOBS account at https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link, and then select the more information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, please contact us by noon EST on the announcement's closing date. Note: We recommend you don't use a .gov, .mil or .edu email address. Instead, use a personal (non-government) email address when you create your login.gov account. Please do not use an email address you share with someone else ***For any issues signing into login.gov, go to https://login.gov/contact/Reasonable accommodation requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis; you must email your request for Reasonable accommodation directly to [email protected]