Career Opportunity

Deputy City Attorney - Retirement Team - City Attorney's Office (8177)

Recruitment: REF43987F

Published: August 20, 2024

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About:

Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt (PEX) position; individuals who are appointed to Exempt Positions are appointed at the pleasure of their appointing officer and are considered to be "at-will."

• Application Opening: August 20, 2024
• Application Deadline: Continuous, earliest close 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 3, 2024
• Compensation Range: $147,914 - $259,142
• Recruitment ID: REF43987F

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for a qualified and motivated attorney to join its Retirement Team.

About the Office

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is an innovative, nationally-recognized municipal law office working to protect and advance the rights and interests of San Francisco and its residents. With just over 300 talented, dedicated, and diverse attorneys and support staff, the Office provides the highest quality legal services to the City’s Mayor, Board of Supervisors, officials, and departments. Our work empowers City leaders with effective, responsive and creative legal solutions and representation so they can deliver critical public services for the betterment of the San Francisco community.

The Office recognizes that diversity in the backgrounds, ideas and experiences of our employees enriches our workplace and enhances our work. We aspire to recruit, employ, retain and promote capable individuals representing the full spectrum of our community, and welcome all candidates, including candidates of any race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age and candidates with disabilities. We have a clear vision: to be the place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come and stay, and where employees feel engaged and valued for their work and contributions to the Office and the City.

To learn more about the City Attorney’s Office please visit: https://www.sfcityattorney.org/

To learn more about the Office’s efforts to provide a welcoming, diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace please click here.

Role description

About the Retirement Team

The Retirement Team is a collaborative group of seven attorneys and a legal secretary. The team counsels the Retirement Board and the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS), which administers, manages, and operates the City’s retirement plans; this work includes investing system assets, approving or denying disability benefit determinations, and disbursing benefits. SFERS serves approximately 75,000 members and beneficiaries and has approximately $35 billion in assets. The Retirement Board also administers the San Francisco Deferred Compensation Plan (SFDCP), which has over 34,000 participants and approximately $5 billion in assets. The Retirement Team’s work covers a broad array of municipal issues that impact the Retirement Board and SFERS, including matters related to pension benefits, SFERS’s investments portfolio, and the SFDCP. The Team also represents SFERS in administrative hearings on industrial and ordinary disability retirement applications involving employees of the City, the Community College District, and the School District before the California Office of Administrative Hearings and may defend those administrative decisions in court.

Deputy City Attorney Position and Responsibilities

The Team’s lead attorney acts as general counsel to the Retirement Board and SFERS. Three attorneys provide investment advice and assist with investment transactions. Three attorneys manage and present disability benefit cases, and two of those attorneys’ workload is divided between disability benefits cases and benefits advice. We are seeking to fill one of the positions that divides its assignments between disability benefits cases and benefits advice. The responsibilities listed below are representative of the range of duties to be assigned and are not intended as an exhaustive list.

• Preparing and arguing disability retirement applications in administrative hearing, and defending those administrative decisions in court
• Advising on public agency benefits laws and rules, including matters such as workers’ compensation double recovery offset, application of the Gilmore rule, death benefits issues (beneficiary designations, competing surviving spouses’ claims, and estate documents required to receive decedents assets), service credits, guardianship and conservatorship; advice includes counseling on family law codes as to dissolution and survivorship rights and on Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) and probate codes as to powers of attorney and death benefit issues
• Responding to subpoenas for benefits information
• Drafting legislation on retirement topics
• Reviewing and approving contracts as to form
• Conducting formal solicitations for outside counsel

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications

• Licensed to practice law in California.

Desired Qualifications

• Four or more years of civil or administrative litigation experience, ideally in the areas of workers’ compensation, disability benefits, or employment
• Experience advising on public benefits issues
• Excellent oral and written communication and advocacy skills
• Excellent drafting and negotiating skills
• Ability to assume responsibility quickly and work independently and efficiently
• Ability to manage and appropriately balance an active caseload of administrative and advice matters, and adjust to occasional workload increases
• Ability to exercise good judgment, multi-task, and meet deadlines
• Strong interpersonal skills and a positive attitude
• Commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment
• Desire and ability to work successfully as part of a team

Verification

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements”

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to comparatively evaluate the qualifications of candidates. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited to participate in the oral/performance interview.

To apply for this position, please submit your resume and cover letter. Applicants who advance in the selection process must submit at least two references and at least one writing sample.

What else should I know?

Salary and Benefits

The Deputy City Attorney position has a 16-step salary scale ranging from $147,914 - $259,142. The successful applicant is appointed to a salary step based on years of experience as a lawyer. The City offers robust health, retirement and other benefits. For more information please visit: https://sfdhr.org/benefits-overview. Attorneys are represented by the Municipal Attorneys Association. Information about compensation and benefits can be found by entering Classification Code 8177 at https://careers.sf.gov/classifications/.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “Apply Now” button and follow instructions on the screen

Along with your application, please submit your resume and a cover letter. Applicants who advance in the selection process must submit at least two references and at least one writing sample.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Human Resources Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please send your inquires to Asa Nojd, HR Analyst, at asa.nojd@sfcityatty.org.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.