Policy Counsel

Job Description

The Office of Labor Relations (OLR) represents the Mayor in the conduct of all labor relations between the City of New York and labor unions representing employees of the City. The Commissioner serves on behalf of the Mayor as the City’s liaison with both labor and management in the private sector. The office is authorized by Executive Order 38 (February 7, 1967), amended by Executive Order 13 (July 24, 1990).

Additionally, OLR administers the Health Benefits Program, Management Benefits Fund, Employee Assistance Program, Work Well NYC, Medicare Part B Reimbursement Program and Pre-Tax Benefits & Citywide Programs, including the Deferred Compensation Plan and NYCE IRA. In addition to negotiating collective bargaining agreements, OLR serves as a resource to agencies with regard to workforce labor issues and works with the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) to pursue innovations in a variety of areas, particularly regarding City health insurance programs. The staff at OLR assist their fellow agencies in handling personnel and payroll issues, conducting labor-management meetings, representing the City at representation hearings, and handling all employee grievances and arbitration matters, while also negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the City's 149 bargaining units.

About the Office of the General Counsel (OGC): Under the supervision of the General Counsel, OGC serves as the agency’s legal counsel, providing legal support and advice on the wide array of issues that arise at the agency given the breadth of its portfolio. In addition to advising on collective bargaining and labor relations, the legal team attorneys represent the city before the Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB) in administrative proceedings, including arbitrations, and serve as neutrals during Step III grievance proceedings. The legal team is also responsible for the contracts administration across the various procurements held by OLR’s administered programs. Further, OGC is responsible for ensuring compliance with the various regulatory requirements that set the legal framework for the employee benefits programs that serve the city’s approximately 300,000 employees and city retirees and their dependents. Lastly, the legal team liaises with the Law Department on litigation and discovery, and is responsible for FOIL, privacy, and the other day-to-day legal matters that arise for an agency’s in-house counsel team.

Job Summary:

OGC seeks an attorney with experience and interest in policy and compliance to serve as Assistant Counsel and Policy Advisor to support the development and evolution of the agency’s policy strategy and compliance framework, including systems for the management of the agency’s healthcare and employee benefits. The Assistant Counsel and Policy Advisor will also support the agency’s policy and compliance development, providing support on both compliance infrastructure internally, as well as workforce trends and impact planning. Reporting into the Deputy General Counsel for Employee Benefits and working closely with the Agency Privacy Officer with some latitude for independent judgment, the Assistant Counsel and Policy Advisor will be part of a team of approximately 15 legal and procurement professionals and will provide legal counsel on the City’s employee health and welfare benefit plans, with a primary focus on policy development, regulatory monitoring and compliance and risk management. The Assistant Counsel and Policy Advisor will support the agency’s design, development, and operationalization of the agency’s compliance and privacy infrastructure, development of key performance indicators, and policy development with respect to the data generated by the health plans the agency administers.

The successful candidate must have experience with and interest in regulatory legal frameworks, policy, research, and in designing and operationalizing compliance systems. They must be a self-starter, curious, driven, and able to work holistically with the various stakeholders who need to be engaged as OLR evolves to better meet the needs of the City’s health and other benefits plans. The successful candidate must be a strategic thinker, possess strong communication skills, organized, detail-oriented, and solutions oriented. While expertise in ACA, HIPAA, COBRA, and other relevant federal and New York State laws and regulations is a plus, the successful candidate must show the ability and desire to develop a strong foundation in the relevant regulatory frameworks and an actionable plan for success. They must be eager to learn, a problem solver who can work both collaboratively and independently without close supervision, and understand the many facets and interests involved in making decisions and investments that impact on the City’s workforce as a whole. Patience, flexibility, sound judgment, creativity, and a good sense of humor to help ensure a collegial environment are also necessary for successful integration to OGC’s small (but mighty) team.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

- Providing legal guidance on the design, implementation, administration and governance of health and employee benefits plans, specifically the City’s self-funded group health plans;
- Support organizational compliance with ACA, HIPAA, COBRA, No Suprises Act and other federal/state laws governing employee health benefits programs;
- Draft, review, and update plan documents, summary plan descriptions (SPDs), policy memoranda, procedures manuals, participant communications, compliance notices and other formal communications.
- Research self-funded health plan models from other private sector and/or governmental entities, summarizing and distilling information so it can be understood by a variety of stakeholders and decisionmakers, and to the extent appropriate, applied to the City’s current self-funded health plan;
- Liaise with other jurisdictions and entities to learn more about their compliance framework and tailor best practices that account for and are relevant to the City’s unique structure;
- Work with OGC and agency leadership to identify tools and investments that could meet needs of compliance and OLR efficiently;
- Liaise with outside counsel and law department as needed;
- Work with the Agency Privacy Officer (APO) to develop relevant policies addressing HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules and breach notification/cybersecurity preparedness procedures;
- Draft, review, and negotiate contracts with employee benefit plan vendors, third-party administrators, consultants, and insurers;
- Support audits and governmental inquiries from federal/New York State agencies;
- Monitor and interpret changes in federal/New York State laws/regulations governing employee benefits programs and communicate their impact to the executive decision-making team;
- Collaborate with the employee benefits administration team to develop and regularly update plan communication materials, policies and procedures;
- Assist with in-house counsel support for the agency, including but not limited to: FOIL requests, discovery, drafting interagency agreements, Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs), and contract scopes of work, training staff on best practices, and researching and answering questions that arise across portfolios;
- Assist in dispute resolution and litigation involving employee benefit plans; and

EXECUTIVE AGENCY COUNSEL - 95005

Qualifications

Admission to the New York State Bar; and four years of recent full-time responsible, relevant, satisfactory legal experience subsequent to admission to any bar, eighteen months of which must have been in the supervision of other attorneys, in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity, or performing highly complex and significant legal work.




Incumbents must remain Members of the New York State Bar in good standing for the duration of this employment.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

Agency: OFFICE OF LABOR RELATIONSJob Category: HealthSalary Band: $100,000 to $125,000 Compensation: USD 102000 - USD 120000