Chief Deputy County Counsel

Title: Chief Deputy County Counsel

Location: San Rafael United States

Salary: $247,145.60 - $273,790.40 Annually

Job Description:

At the County of Marin, our employees overwhelmingly report feeling their work is meaningful, they like the work they do, and they are proud to tell people "I work for the County of Marin." Discover more about us, our values and our organizational culture on the Department of Human Resources website. Read on to find out more about this opportunity.

County Counsel's Office: The County Counsel's Office provides high quality and timely legal services supporting the County of Marin's governmental functions. Services are provided to County departments, boards and agencies in a manner that is cost-effective, professional and promotes excellence in delivery of government services contributing to the health, safety and welfare of county residents and visitors. 

The Chief Deputy County Counsel is a key part of the department's management team, participating in management meetings and decision-making as well as leading a division of the office and providing direct supervision to attorneys and leadership to all department employees. Further, the Chief Deputy performs a variety of professional legal work for County departments and represented special districts including but not limited to advice and counsel, litigation in a variety of areas (excessive force defense, land use, trip and falls, dangerous condition of public property, etc.) public contracting law, public meeting law and land use. The Chief Deputy will exercise a considerable amount of independent judgment and initiative in representing their assigned clients and may be assigned the most complex cases as special projects. The Chief Deputy is typically assigned to any of the specialty areas of the office and is expected to handle federal and state litigation from case assignment through trial and appellate hearings. The Chief Deputy County Counsel takes an active role in performance management, coaching and staff/team development. 

Hybrid schedule:

The County Counsel's Office has embraced a hybrid work schedule that considers that some duties of this position may be performed remotely. However, the successful candidate must be able to report to County facilities for meetings, work assignments, and/or disaster service work upon short notice, as needed and deemed appropriate. During the initial probationary period, the successful candidate may be required to work primarily onsite before establishing a hybrid work schedule.

Our Highly Qualified Candidate is an experienced attorney who has independently performed litigation and advice work for public entity clients and has sufficient public law experience to effectively supervise a broad range of Office of the County Counsel functions. Specific experience advising public entity clients in the areas of land use, public works, or general civil litigation is particularly relevant, but not required. The candidate has strong leadership skills and is capable of taking an active role in managing the Office and developing our staff. Further, the ideal candidate has a proven track record of excellent customer service and is a team player, working respectfully, collaboratively and developing positive working relationships with colleagues, clients, staff and court personnel.

QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge of: 

• Methods and problems administering the work of a governmental law office including the principles of personnel management.
• Legal principles and their application, with emphasis on civil law.
• Legal research methods.
• Rules of evidence and the conduct of Court proceedings in trial and appellate Courts.
• California civil and legislative law.
• Duties, powers, limitations, and responsibilities of the County Counsel's Office.
• Organization, powers, and limitations of local governmental functions and the California Constitution.

Ability to:

• Effectively supervise and evaluate the work of attorneys and support staff, and provide guidance and counsel to attorneys in complex areas of litigation or advice.
• Research, analyze and apply legal principles, facts, evidence and precedents to legal problems.
• Prepare, present, and conduct cases of law, equity and appeals in court and administrative tribunals.
• Present statements of law clearly and logically in written and verbal form.
• Prepare clear, concise, accurate and effective legal, policy and procedural guidelines.
• Communicate logically and effectively with a diverse group of clients, witnesses, judges, other attorneys and employees of various agencies and departments.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work.
• Analyze and draft ordinances and other regulations.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS 

Five (5) years of progressively responsible experience as an attorney in civil or governmental law. Lead or supervisory experience is highly desirable.

 Certificates and Licenses

 Current active membership in the State Bar of California is required.

Testing and Eligible List: Depending on the number of qualified applications received, the examination may consist of a highly qualified review, application screening, online assessment, written examination, oral examination, performance examination, or any combination to determine which candidates' names will be placed on the eligible list.  The eligible list established from this recruitment may be used to fill the current vacancy, and any future vacancies for open, fixed-term, full-time or part-time positions which may occur while the list remains active.