Senior Assistant City Attorney (Public Utilities)

The Office of the City Attorney is seeking a full-time, permanent Senior Assistant City Attorney for its Operations and Development Division, in representation of the City’s Department of Public Utilities. The Department’s legal support needs are extensive and broad, with an emphasis on regulatory compliance, real property management, transactional matters, and customer service. The Department manages five City utilities: water, wastewater, stormwater, gas, and electric.

This position is Unclassified and serves at the will of the Appointing Authority.

The pay range for this position is $150,000.00 - $165,000.00 annually

The selected candidate's salary will be based on experience and qualifications illustrated in the completed application along with the required attachments.

This position provides legal services to the City. Work will focus primarily on the water utilities and may include the following: researching legal issues; providing legal advice and direction; reviewing, drafting, and negotiating transactional documents; drafting ordinances; interpreting laws, rules, and regulations; and providing oversight and direction to paralegal and legal secretarial staff.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Considerable knowledge of area of focus to include regulatory, environmental, local government, and real estate law, familiarity with relevant regulatory and administrative law processes related to area of focus

• Standard office equipment such as computer, telephone, etc., and electronic databases and related software applications such as Microsoft Office Suite, Lexis, Legal Files, etc.

• Skilled in arguing persuasively based on laws and facts, clear and concise written communication, communicating effectively with various internal and external departments, conducting effective meetings, learning new subject matters quickly and thoroughly, making modifications to program procedures as needed

• Skilled at client communication and management, with an emphasis on solutions-oriented practice, risk analysis, and understanding of client practical and operational needs and concerns

• Able to manage high-volume workload for a public utility client, adhere to highest standards of ethics and professionalism, and supervise paraprofessional staff, including scheduling, setting goals, assigning work, etc.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Juris Doctorate
• Seven (7) years of progressively responsible legal experience in environmental law or public utilities-related law is highly preferred; Four (4) years of progressively responsible legal experience.
• An equivalent combination of training and experience (as approved by the department) may be used to meet the minimum qualifications of the classification

Licensing, Certifications, and other Special Requirements:

• Admission to the Virginia State Bar
• Licensed to practice law in Virginia
• Twelve hours of continuing legal education annually >