Salary Range: Range starts at $176,469- $205,000 DOE, with the ability to increase with performance and experience.
The City Attorney’s Office handles a wide variety of legal issues that affect municipal government with a team of five attorneys, two paralegals, and two part-time law clerks.
JOB SUMMARY:
The City Senior Attorney serves as in-house counsel to the City and its elected officials, departments, boards, commissions, and agencies. The Senior City Attorney practices in a wide range of legal fields, including local government, land use, state and federal constitutional law, contracts, real property, housing, transportation, employment, civil litigation, and water law. As directed by the City Attorney, may focus on complex transactional work, land use, and legal and policy strategy with a wide range of local government and state partners to achieve positive outcomes for the City specifically and municipal law generally.
TYPICAL DUTIES:
- Provide strategic legal advice in high-focus areas including legislative policy matters.
- Prepare and review legal opinions, ordinances, contracts, procurement materials, plats, and other legal documents and advise the City’s elected officials, departments, boards, commissions, and agencies on legal questions and policy formation.
- May be assigned to advise specific City departments such as planning, police, human resources, transportation, housing, recreation, or economic development.
- Primarily responsible for providing legal advice and counsel to Boards and Commissions, including training on complex statutory and code requirements. May Include attending weekly after-hour meetings to provide legal advice.
- Assist with negotiations and drafting or review of legal documents involving real property, open space, and water rights.
- Research legal questions and evaluate the impact of applicable law on City policies, procedures, and programs.
- Represent the City in litigation, including drafting and reviewing pleadings and appearing in court or before administrative agencies.
- Review staff reports for City Council, Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment and Historic Preservation Board.
- Manage work plan and hiring for the office’s law clerk program; direct professional staff as assigned.
- Work with City lobbyists on state and federal legislative matters and represent the City on Utah League of Cities and Towns’ legislative policy committees, land use task force, or other ULCT or UMAA committee as directed by the City Attorney.
- May advise on risk management principles and manage claim processing.
- Other duties as assigned.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
- J.D. from accredited law school
- Member in good standing of the Utah State Bar (or the ability to become one within a reasonable time on a case-by-case basis)
- 10 years of public sector law or specialized knowledge in a relevant, unique area of law (employment as a full-time paid judicial clerk in a court of record or appellate court may be credited as full-time legal employment)
- Extensive knowledge of legal principles, practices, and procedures of civil, criminal, constitutional, administrative, and local government law
- Strong ability to draft transactional documents and organize and analyze facts, evidence, and precedents, and effectively present such material orally and in writing
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- 5 years of experience focused on local government law, including complex transactional matters; state legislative relations including providing legal and strategy advice on legislative matters; and acting as a liaison to state and local organizations to develop programs to enhance the effectiveness of local government law
- Familiarity with land use
- Ability to serve as back-up for the City’s misdemeanor prosecutor
WORKING CONDITIONS:
- Considerable exposure to stressful situations
- Work is performed primarily in an office setting.
- May require small amounts of travel to and from meeting and court proceedings.
- Occasional non-traditional working hours which may include evening and weekend meetings.
