Address
Form of workClosing Date: 15th June, 2024
Description:
Primary Purpose:Manages and directs the County Attorney's Office, which is the in-house legal department of A Government Entity. Performs governmental legal work of the highest degree of professional complexity and difficulty and supervises the work of staff attorneys, paralegals, and administrative staff.
Essential Job Functions:
- Directs and supervises subordinate attorneys and oversees the preparation of litigation; reviews case documentation, determines legal position and strategy; initiates legal documentation, conducts interviews, obtains and organizes evidence, and prepares witnesses to testify.
- Leads or participates in negotiations and mediations, including alternative dispute resolutions, and/or arbitration of cases and legal issues with judicial officials, federal/state agencies, opposing counsel, and other parties, including other governmental entities, to reach agreements or settlements of civil and criminal cases or administrative proceedings.
- Directs or performs very complex legal research and analysis of law, legal precedents, and issues for the drafting of ordinances and policy, giving of general advice, and for lawsuits.
- Studies and analyzes changes in laws and court decisions to determine, anticipate, evaluate, and assess County impact.
- Provides subordinate and other County staff with training related to their assigned responsibilities.
- Drafts, reviews, or prepares, or directs the drafting, review, and preparation, of ordinances, reports, joint powers agreements, other intergovernmental agreements, contracts, and other legal documents, and correspondence for the County, including its Elected Offices.
- Represents, or directs the representation of, the County and its Elected Officials and employees in federal and state court and administrative hearings in litigation.
- Consults with top level management, staff, other governmental entities, and the private sector to obtain and provide legal information or determine legal strategy on issues, cases, and problems.
- Reviews, or directs the review, of all proposed county ordinances and resolutions for legal sufficiency; attends Board of County Commissioners meetings and other public meetings, as required, offering advice on procedural and substantive matters coming before the Board of County Commissioners and other decision-making and advisory bodies.
- Interviews and recommends for hire applicants for positions within the County Attorney's Office and other County positions. Provides business and policy advice, as requested and appropriate given the matter at hand.
Knowledge/ Skills:
- Knowledge of common law and of the state and federal laws; of court procedures and rules of evidence required for hearings before administrative and judicial bodies, and methods and techniques of legal research and principal techniques of supervision.
- Skill in organizing facts, evidence and precedents; presentation of material in a clear and logical form for oral presentations or in such written media as briefs, contracts, deeds, agreements or research reports; effective supervision; public relations; establishing working relationships with officials, employees, court personnel and the public; developing policy recommendations that comply with applicable law; and negotiations.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Admission to the State Bar of New Mexico plus any combination of experience, as an attorney, in the general practice of law or as an attorney for a public or private employer totaling ten (10) years, of which a minimum of two (2) years must have been in a supervisory capacity.
- Public, employment, and labor law experience is preferred, as is litigation experience.
