USDA Office of the General Counsel, Mountain Region - Attorney-Advisors, Paralegal Specialists, and Legal Administrative Specialists

These opportunities are for Attorney-Advisors, Paralegal Specialists, and/or Legal Administrative Specialists in support of OGC’s Mountain Region. This Region is responsible for providing legal advice and counsel to USDA component agencies, to include the Forest Service (Regions 1-4), Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Rural Development agencies, in states such as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. We represent USDA agency interests in administrative litigation, including water rights adjudications and contract-related proceedings, and serve as agency counsel for the USDA in litigation handled by the U.S. Department of Justice, to include litigation arising under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Interested applicants may have an interest in natural resources law (administrative law, environmental law, mining and mineral law, real property, tribal law, and/or water law) and/or commercial law (secured transactions, lending, trusts, foreclosures, bankruptcy), but such interest is not a pre-condition to obtaining an internship in our organization.

Attorney-Advisors within the Mountain Region provide legal advice and services to all USDA agencies within our geographical purview; they provide legal advice, conduct research, analyze and interpret federal, state, and local laws, and draft written opinions, memoranda, and pleadings in support of USDA programs and litigation. Paralegal Specialists perform a variety of paralegal functions, which include legal research, evaluating cases, preparing cases for hearings, interpreting federal, state, and agency regulations, compiling reports, and drafting pleadings, memoranda, and legal correspondence. They help manage compliance with regional records and property management obligations and implement preservation procedures when OGC issues a litigation hold. They take a leading role in devising and/or updating regional administrative procedures and provide a variety of litigation support and administrative duties in support of assigned attorneys. Legal Administrative Specialists are responsible for handling assignments in support of attorney requests for assistance in a wide array of areas that may include bankruptcy, loan and grant eligibility, secured lending, claims filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, real property acquisitions and exchanges, loan foreclosures, natural resources, mining, special use permits, contracts, administrative law, FOIA, and the Privacy Act. They assist with general litigation support, records management compliance, and are responsible for entering and retrieving/compiling data from OGC's case management system and other USDA/OGC databases.

Interested applicants should be able to commit to at least 120 days for the internship opportunities. Interested applicants should also express their interest by contacting the Program POC via email and providing a resume and cover letter at least 3 months in advance of the desired start date to facilitate a standard background investigation if accepted for an opportunity.