2Ls: Navy Summer Law Clerk Program
Personnel Notice 162-24
Department of the Navy Office of the General Counsel
2025 Summer Law Clerk Program (2Ls)
Closing Date: 9/13/2024
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.
DON OGC is an organization with over 800 attorneys worldwide supporting Sailors and Marines, and offers a great place to work and build a career. DON OGC attorneys practice areas include: Government Contracts, Litigation, Employment/Labor Law, Intellectual Property, Energy, Environmental, Ethics, Fiscal, Real Estate, Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, Intelligence, Cyber, and Legislation. 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.
DON OGC anticipates several vacancies for second year law students to participate in the 2025 DON OGC Summer Law Clerk program. The ten-week civilian program begins the first week of June and provides law students with the opportunity to experience the civilian practice of law within the Department. Students will be assigned to a Navy or Marine Corps command for the ten-week program, and during that time they will work with OGC attorneys on legal projects and participate in law clerk activities that highlight the legal practice within our commands. Students will also see first-hand on command visits how DON OGC’s legal work directly impacts our Sailors and Marines. Summer Law Clerk positions are available in the Washington, DC area; Patuxent River, MD; Mechanicsburg, PA; Norfolk, VA; and San Diego, CA. Summer Law Clerks will be paid at the GS-9 salary level, with applicable locality pay, every two weeks for the duration of the program. Successful completion of the Summer Law Clerk Program may result in an advance offer of employment with DON OGC contingent upon graduation from law school.
To be eligible for the Summer Law Clerk Program, applicants must be enrolled in a law school accredited by the American Bar Association, and must be a second year law student who will become a third year law student at the end of the 2025 spring semester and will graduate at the end of the 2026 spring semester. Applicants must also be US citizens and must be able to obtain and maintain an interim SECRET level security clearance. Applicants will be evaluated on their application packages, to include academic record, participation on law review/a law journal, participation in moot court competition, or participation in a similar competitive law school activity. Application packages should clearly demonstrate that applicants meet the above requirements.
Applicants should submit a cover letter expressing their interest in and qualifications for a Summer Law Clerk position; a current resume; their law school transcript indicating their GPA, with class rank if available (an unofficial transcript is acceptable as long as the name of the school, dates of attendance, 2 and course grades are evident); and one legal writing sample no more than 10 pages in length (an excerpt from a longer document is acceptable) authored by the applicant. In addition, Applicants should submit two professional or academic references including emails and phone numbers. Applicants should also state in their cover letters the desired geographic location(s) in which they would like to work as a Summer Law Clerk, based on the locations identified above in this vacancy announcement.
Applicants who previously applied to the DON OGC 2025 Summer Law Clerk Program vacancy announcement do not need to re-apply.
Application materials may only be submitted electronically; hardcopy submissions will not be accepted. Application materials must consist of individual documents in MS Word or Adobe “.pdf” format and should be clearly labelled.
Complete applications should be submitted to usn.ncr.ogcwashdc.mbx.navyogcslcprogram@us.navy.mil.
The subject line of the applicant’s email should include the applicant’s full name, the position title “2025 Summer Law Clerk” and this personnel notice number.
For more information, interested students may contact Ms. Shadonne Pennyman, Program Support Specialist, at usn.ncr.ogcwashdc.mbx.navyogcslcprogram@us.navy.mil or (703) 697-2802.
This announcement closes on September 13, 2024, at 11:59:59 PM (ET), and complete applications must be received by this date and time to be considered.
This position is not eligible for remote work.
Relocation expenses are not available.
If the successful applicant is not currently a member of the Department of the Navy Office of the General Counsel, processing of the hiring action can only commence after submission of those items identified in the “Instructions for New OGC Attorneys” (see Careers section at https://www.secnav.navy.mil/OGC/).
NOTICE OF VETERANS’ PREFERENCE There is no formal rating system for applying veterans’ preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of the Navy Office of the General Counsel considers veterans’ preference eligibility a positive factor for attorney hiring.
Applicants eligible for veterans’ preference must specifically claim such eligibility in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., DD Form 214, “Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty”) to their submissions. Although the point-preference system is not used, applicants eligible to claim a 10-point preference must submit a Standard Form (SF) 15, “Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference,” and supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed. (SF-15, which lists the types of 10-point preference and the required supporting documents, is available from the Office of Personnel Management Website at http://www.opm.gov.)
Not all veterans are preference eligible. For a summary of time periods, campaigns, and conditions that entitle an applicant to preference eligibility, please visit https://www.fedshirevets.gov/index.aspx, https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring- paths/veterans, and see the Veterans’ Preference Advisor, operated by the Department of Labor at https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/vets/vetpref/vetspref.htm.
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.
Legal and Regulatory Guidance Links:
Financial suitability Link: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/financial-suitability
Social security number request Link: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/social-security-number
Signature and false statements Link: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/signature-false-statements
Selective Service Link: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/selective-service
New employee probationary period Link: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/probationary-period
