Assistant United States Attorney (e-Litigation)

Hiring Organization
USAO Northern District of Illinois
Hiring Office
Chicago, IL
Attorney Appointment Type
Attorney Permanent
Job ID
AUSA-NDIL-26-9

Location:
219 S. Dearborn Street
5th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604 - United States

Application Deadline:
Friday, June 5, 2026
About the Office

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois (NDIL) has more than 160 Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) working in its Criminal and Civil Divisions. NDIL has two offices, one located in Chicago and the other in Rockford. Criminal AUSAs handle a wide variety of cases, including drug trafficking, firearms and other violent crime offenses, immigration offenses, terrorism-related offenses, cyber-crimes, and a variety of fraud, public corruption, and white-collar offenses. Criminal AUSAs represent the United States in grand jury and judicial proceedings in United States District Court and appeals in the United States Court of Appeals. Civil AUSAs handle an array of defensive and affirmative litigation on behalf of the United States, its agencies, and employees before the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals. Defensive litigation includes medical malpractice and other personal injury cases, employment discrimination cases, challenges to agency actions, FOIA, and immigration. Affirmative matters include civil rights, environmental, food and drug, along with health care and other civil fraud cases. All AUSAs are responsible for substantial legal research and writing. The dynamic practice in the Office is both challenging and demanding. It represents an extraordinary opportunity and privilege to represent the United States and to participate in all aspects of federal criminal or civil law and practice.

Job Description

Achieving and maintaining eLitigation excellence among attorneys and staff is an important priority of the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office. The eLitigation Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) will be responsible for building and coordinating the Office’s eLitigation portfolio. Specifically, the eLitigation AUSA will be responsible for developing the Office’s eLitigation systems, controls, operations, policies, and protocols in the eLitigation space. This responsibility includes procedures for processing, reviewing, producing, and managing electronic discovery; ensuring discovery processes meet legal standards and expectations; and providing training on litigation technology software tools, platforms, and applications, all while staying up to date on new emerging technology (for example, generative AI) that could be added to the eLitigation portfolio for greater efficiency and effectiveness. To succeed in this role, the eLitigation AUSA will be expected to work in close partnership with the Office’s litigation support staff. This position also requires the eLitigation Assistant to advise and consult on substantive eLitigation and discovery issues in both criminal and civil cases, including with (i) internal stakeholders such as criminal and civil case teams of AUSAs, paralegals, and support staff; and office management; as well as (ii) external stakeholders, such as the U.S. District Court; the Federal Defender Program; other defense counsel; and law enforcement agencies. The eLitigation AUSA will also be expected to develop benchmarks or metrics that may be used to evaluate the success of the newly developed and implemented systems, controls, operations, policies, and protocols.

Importantly, this is not a trial AUSA position; it does not involve case handling or litigation. The selected candidate is an attorney advisor, who will be fully dedicated to coordinating the Office’s eLitigation portfolio. The AUSA will be located in the Chicago Office and will support the work of the Criminal and Civil Divisions.

Because this is a newly created position, the eLitigation AUSA’s responsibilities may evolve over time as to reflect the changing technology landscape and/or the Office’s changing needs. But, at its core, this position will be and have as an important component eLitigation requirements even as the landscape may evolve.

Qualifications

Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction), and have at least 2 years of post-J.D. experience. Your application materials should demonstrate excellent academics, strong legal writing skills, a commitment to public service, and experience with complex civil or criminal litigation in which eLitigation technology applications were used to acquire, organize, analyze and present electronic discovery and evidence. Preferred qualifications include experience in prior eLitigation management, generative AI, criminal prosecutions and/or government litigation or administrative matters, such as the False Claims Act or agency litigation, and/or roles involving change management.

United States citizenship is required.

Application Process

Application information for AUSA-NDIL-26-9 is available at the following site: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/job-listing.

To apply, please provide a complete application package, which consists of the following 5 items:

Item 1 must be submitted through the USAJobs portal AND sent via email, in PDF format, to USAILN.hiring@usdoj.gov.

Resume and cover letter;

Items 2-5 should ONLY be submitted via email, in PDF format, to USAILN.hiring@usdoj.gov. PLEASE DO NOT submit items 2-5 through the USAJobs portal.

Law school transcript;
Sample work product from the last year that demonstrates eLitigation knowledge and proficiency;
Three professional references who are in a position to assess your eLitigation skills and qualifications; and

AUSA Questionnaire and Personal Statement indicating why you think you would be a good trial lawyer and why you want to work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois

Applicants who fail to follow the steps above will not be considered. Your application package will not be considered complete, and will not be reviewed for consideration, until all 5 items have been received.

No telephone calls please.

Applicants should familiarize themselves and comply with the relevant rules of professional conduct regarding any possible conflicts of interest in connection with their applications. In particular, please notify this Office if you currently represent clients or adjudicate matters in which this Office is involved and/or you have a family member who is representing clients or adjudicating matters in which this Office is involved so that we can evaluate any potential conflicts of interest or disqualification issues that may need to be addressed under those circumstances.

Salary

Assistant United States Attorneys’ pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the number years of professional attorney experience. The range of basic pay is $80,994 to $197,100 which includes 30.86% locality pay.