Senior Assistant City Attorney

The Arvada City Attorney's Office is looking for a motivated attorney to join a close-knit, talented legal team responsible for providing in-house legal services to a municipal corporation. This position performs legal work in a number of substantive areas, with specialization in one or more areas, including civil litigation, land use and real property, public works / utilities (infrastructure), or police procedures, involving a wide variety of complex legal issues in order to guide or help municipal clients resolve issues and avoid or respond to litigation. Generally speaking, each of our senior attorneys is responsible for one specialized assigned area in addition to other assigned duties. We are seeking someone who is engaged, driven to pursue public service, and who can work respectfully and cooperatively with other City team members, defendants, defense attorneys, and members of the public. We offer meaningful work that will enable you to make an immediate impact on the lives of those in our community, an unusually diverse array of professional development opportunities that will allow you to expand your skills in a variety of legal disciplines, and a work environment that supports a healthy work-life balance.

The City of Arvada promotes Equal Pay for Equal Work. Starting salary will be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity. The range listed reflects the entire range and typical placement is entry to mid-range.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

• Performs legal research and prepares written opinions on a variety of topics.

• Acts as legal resource and advisor to city departments and attends meetings and answers questions as needed.

• Drafts, amends and reviews legal documents including ordinances, resolutions, agreements, and city council agenda packets.

• Represents boards and commissions and attends meetings and hearings.

• Researches and prepares materials and may conduct training on, a variety of legal topics.

• Responds to citizen and staff inquiries and advises city departments, boards and commissions regarding city codes, ordinances, and other local, state and federal statutes and regulations.

• Acts as substitute counsel for city council, boards, or commissions.

• Drafts, amends, and reviews contracts, agreements, leases, deeds and corporate documents for various non-profit corporations connected to the city.

• Represents the city in administrative hearings.

Areas of Specialty

• Civil Litigator. Represents the city and employees as either defendants or plaintiffs in state, federal, appellate, administrative and quasi-judicial courts involving civil litigation, appellate issues, or regulatory matters. This includes preparing necessary pleadings, motions, and briefs. This also involves preparing witnesses for depositions, hearings, trials and appellate arguments.

• Police Advisor. Provides legal advice to the police department and maintains 24 hour a day, seven day a week availability for legal advice.

• Land Use/Real Property. Provides legal advice relating to all aspects of land use, zoning, variances and real property issues.

• Demonstrates a respectful attitude towards customers and coworkers that promotes teamwork, open communication, and effective customer service.

• Acts with the customer in mind, responds to requests promptly and provides effective services or solutions for customers.

• Exercises appropriate level of initiative and judgment to make decisions within the scope of assigned authority.

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Ability to effectively communicate information, both verbally and in writing, to support organizational objectives and interact with all levels of personnel within the city in a positive and cooperative manner.

• Working knowledge of general municipal operations.

• Understanding of the principles and practices of substantive and procedural criminal law as applied to municipal prosecution and appeals.

• Solid computer skills

• Solid legal research skills.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Ability to read, understand and interpret statutes, ordinances, rules, regulations and case law.

OTHER FUNCTIONS:

1. Other duties as required.

-Employees are held accountable for all duties of this job-

SCOPE OF AUTHORITY:

Receives general supervision under the direction of the deputy city attorney. Plans work and the work of others to meet defined work plans and objectives. Some precedents exist. Employees are expected to handle different and specialized situations in the department or functional area.

Financial Accountability:

Makes recommendations to the supervisor for budget allocations pertaining to the department. Approves expenditures up to a certain amount. Makes recommendations on settlement involving claims or litigation.

SUPERVISION EXERCISED:

May provide technical supervision to law clerks.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT/PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES:

The work environment/physical activities described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of the job.

Work is primarily performed in an office environment with low noise levels. Physical effort and activities include:

MINIMUM REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS (EDUCATION, LICENSE, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE):

Law degree (JD, LLB, LLM) and five (5) years legal experience as a practicing attorney in civil law with three (3) years specific legal experience in insurance law, third party and tort claims, land use, real property, police procedures, or general municipal law. Significant trial experience including bench and jury cases at the district court level desirable. Admission to the Colorado Bar Association and license to practice law in the State of Colorado required. Federal court admission preferred. Prior experience in a governmental law office preferred.

The City is an Equal Employment Opportunity

The City's Core values are in every employee's individual Performance Plan which helps us to reinforce our expectations for living and working by our Core Values.

Every City employee is expected to perform his/her job to the highest professional standards. This includes upholding the City's values with integrity and accountability, acting in a manner that is respectful and inclusive towards others, and adhering to the City's policy on employee conduct as detailed in the personnel rules sec. 70-143.

Vision: We Dream Big and Deliver

Mission: We are dedicated to delivering superior services to enhance the lives of everyone in our community.

Values:

Innovation: We excel in creativity, flexibility and the use of best practices while valuing diverse backgrounds, ideas and perspectives.

Passion: We are a high performing, inclusive team inspiring each other to pursue excellence.

Opportunity: We value our diversity, embrace possibilities, face challenges, persevere and take action to deliver quality results.