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Assistant Section Chief - Environmental Enforcement Section

Environmental Enforcement Sect
Washington, DC Other
POSTED ON 5/29/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 6/10/2026
The Environmental Enforcement Section seeks an experienced attorney to serve as an Assistant Section Chief who will supervise one of five litigating groups. Each litigating group consists of a team of attorneys and professional staff charged with pursuing a wide variety of district court cases: pollution control, cost recovery, and natural resource damage claims chief among them.

Qualifications:

Applicants must possess a J.D. Degree (or equivalent), be an active member in good standing of the bar (any U.S. jurisdiction), and be a U.S. citizen or national. Applicants must have a minimum of 8 years post-J.D. or post clerkship litigation experience that includes significant federal litigation experience or substantive familiarity with the Administrative Procedure Act and natural resource statutes within the Section's jurisdiction.

The ideal candidate will have familiarity with the main environmental statutes under which the Section operates, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

Applicants should demonstrate outstanding legal writing skills; excellent judgment; the ability to mentor and manage attorneys and administrative staff to produce high quality work under tight time frames; the ability to manage multiple assignments simultaneously and to adjust to meet new priorities; the ability to work cooperatively and effectively with client agencies and other ENRD and Department of Justice components; and a commitment to the highest ethical and professional standards.

YOUR RESUME MUST provide specific details as to how your experience meets the specialized experience as described in the vacancy announcement if you are using experience to meet all or part of the qualification requirements. Please ensure that your resume includes the month and year that you began and ended each position held or that position will not be credited toward meeting the experience requirement. Part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience. Failure to provide details will result in an ineligible rating.

Only experience and education obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered.

Responsibilities:

Assistant Section Chiefs have direct supervisory responsibility for all aspects of work in their respective groups. This supervision involves, among other things:

  • Ensuring appropriate staffing on each matter (including appropriate professional staff to handle administrative matters and case matters).
  • Building team effectiveness and morale.
  • Providing strategy and other guidance as needed.
  • Ensuring compliance with all relevant DOJ guidance and policies.
  • Reviewing briefs, memoranda, and other written work product for substantive accuracy and for consistency with positions in other litigation.
  • Coordinating with counterparts at client agencies and with other DOJ and ENRD components; briefing agency and DOJ leadership as necessary.
  • Developing and recommending settlement positions to decisionmakers.
  • Preparing attorneys for trial.

The ideal candidate will have:

  • Significant federal litigation experience.
  • Demonstrated interest and successful experiences in: leading people, building coalitions, and solving a wide range of problems.
  • Experience and proven competence in courtroom advocacy, ideally including evidence-heavy work.
  • Demonstrated potential to inspire those supervised, both to deliver the best possible work and to find satisfaction in their work life and career development.
  • Effective handling of projects (cases or other work) that involved the contributions of multiple people and that were defined in part by challenging goals or circumstances.
  • Successful experience in case development, settlement, pretrial practice (including ESI), and both oral and written presentation, including effective editing of the work of others.
  • Working familiarity with the main environmental statutes under which the section operates, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act as well as with those federal rules pertinent to the practice of the section.

Salary : $169,279

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