The Administrative Conference is Hiring! (ACUS Update)
The Administrative Conference of the United States has announced it’s hiring an attorney advisor. This is great opportunity, particularly for someone interested in a career working in the federal government or in academia. I can attest to this, having worked at ACUS for five years before entering academia. If you love administrative law–or are open to loving it!–this is a total dream job.
A few things are really great about being an attorney advisor at ACUS. First, you get to work closely with Conference members, who are officials in agencies across government, attorneys in private practice and public interest organizations, law professors, and other administrative experts. Second, you have the opportunity to gain really deep knowledge about administration from a unique, cross-cutting perspective. Other positions in government offer similar depth, but usually within the narrower context of a single agency’s work. Finally, the agency is small, with a staff of around a dozen or so people. I found that the atmosphere was relaxed and the job offered significant opportunity to shape and contribute to the agency’s work. In my time there, I served as a researcher on three projects that led to adopted recommendations (and published law review articles!). And I was able to contribute to many other recommendations and research projects through research, collaboration with consultants and committees, and internal deliberation and drafting. I enjoyed it–and I learned a ton!
If that sounds good to you, apply! Here’s the announcement:
Attorney Advisor Position
ACUS is actively seeking highly-qualified applicants for an Attorney Advisor Position. All applications received by 5:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, August 31 will be guaranteed consideration. Applications received thereafter will be considered on a rolling basis.
The Conference encourages lawyers who may be interested in serving as an attorney advisor to send a brief letter, accompanied by a resume and transcript (official or unofficial), expressing their interest and identifying the approximate date on which they would be available to start. The ideal candidate would have more than one year experience working as an attorney in a setting requiring them to independently manage a portfolio of projects or possess a demonstrated academic background in administrative law and regulatory procedure. Letters should be addressed to Reeve T. Bull, Research Director, and emailed to info@acus.gov.
The Conference welcomes expressions of interest from lawyers who hold fixed-term positions—such as judicial clerkships and academic fellowships—that may not end in the near future.
About the Conference
The Conference is an executive branch agency whose principal mission is to conduct empirical research and recommend improvements to administrative procedure and related matters to the President, federal agencies, Congress, and the federal judiciary. The Conference also assists individual agencies in improving administrative programs, publishes sourcebooks of enormous value both to the government and public, and provides nonpartisan advice to other agencies and Congress. Most of the research for the Conference is conducted by distinguished academics in law and related disciplines. For additional information, please visit www.acus.gov.
Job Duties
ACUS attorney advisors conduct legal research and writing, stakeholder outreach, and other activities in furtherance of the Conference’s mission of improving federal agency rulemaking, adjudication, administration and management, judicial review of agency action, and other related matters. The duties associated with the position include identifying appropriate subjects for reports and recommendations through extensive research and analysis; working with outside consultants in preparing reports and recommendations; drafting research reports; planning workshops and other similar events; presenting research findings to the Conference’s members; speaking at meetings of the Conference, professional associations, and law schools about the Conference’s work; and assisting with the implementation of the Conference’s recommendations.
Qualifications
The Conference seeks to hire attorneys with strong legal research and writing skills who have an interest in administrative law. Though the only formal requirement is that the applicant either possess or be in the process of obtaining a law degree, the Conference is especially interested in hiring attorneys who have acquired professional experience in administrative law and regulatory policymaking, including prior work at a law firm, judicial clerkship, corporation, federal agency, university, think tank, or other organization. The Conference is also especially interested in hiring attorneys who have supervisory experience and who have worked in a setting requiring them to act independently in balancing a variety of projects and carrying out their duties with minimal higher-level oversight. Both hiring decisions and the level of compensation will depend on the amount of relevant experience a candidate brings to the position.
Compensation
The attorney advisor will be compensated as a GS-11, GS-12, GS-13, or GS-14, depending on relevant work experience and current pay. Information on compensation under the 2020 General Schedule (GS) can be found at the website of the Office of Personnel Management (www.opm.gov). Compensation will also include federal health, retirement, and leave benefits.
This post is part of the Administrative Conference Update series, which highlights new and continuing projects, upcoming committee meetings, proposed and recently adopted recommendations, and other news about the Administrative Conference of the United States. The series is further explained here, and all posts in the series can be found here.
