Career Opportunity

Deputy City Attorney - Workers' Compensation Team - City Attorney's Office (8177)

Recruitment: RTF0152248-01087470

Published: October 30, 2024

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About:

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for a qualified and motivated litigation attorney to join its Workers’ Compensation Team to litigate the City’s claims and to advise City departments on developing workers’ compensation issues, including legislative changes and other legal developments. 

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: October 30, 2024
• Application Deadline: Continuous, earliest close 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 13, 2024
• Compensation Range: $147,914- $259,142
• Recruitment ID: RTF0152248-01087470

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 the City and County of San Francisco and its residents.  With just over 300 talented and dedicated employees, the Office provides exceptional 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, and our affirmative advocacy enhances the lives and wellbeing of the San Francisco’s residents and visitors.

The Office recognizes that diversity in the backgrounds, identities, ideas, and lived experiences of our employees enriches our workplace and enhances our work.  We aspire to recruit, employ, retain, and promote talented 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, and age, and candidates with disabilities.  We have a clear vision: to be the place where a diverse mix of people want to come and stay, grow professionally, and find purpose and engagement, and where all employees feel welcomed and respected for their full authentic selves, and valued for their work and contributions to the Office and the City.  To learn more about the Office’s efforts to provide a welcoming, diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace please click here.

The Office offers a hybrid remote work schedule for eligible employees, with three days onsite and up to two days remote.

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

Role description

About the Workers’ Compensation Team

The Workers’ Compensation Team is a collaborative group of ten attorneys, two legal secretaries and one paralegal.  This team represents City departments in all workers’ compensation matters at the Workers Compensation Appeal Board and within the City’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program (carve-out).  This team engages in extensive discovery, negotiation, settlement, litigation, trial, and appellate work. 

This team advises the Department of Human Resources, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and other departments on developing workers’ compensation issues, including recent legislative changes and other legal developments. 

Lastly, this team handles all subrogation matters on behalf of the City when a City employee is injured on the job by a negligent third party.

Deputy City Attorney Position and Responsibilities

Attorneys on the Workers’ Compensation Team litigate and defend the City against all workers’ compensation claims filed by employees.  Attorneys advise claims adjusters on general questions under state laws governing workers’ compensation issues.  Team deputies primarily litigate and defend claims but will also advise departments as needed on workers compensation and return to work issues.

For the current opening, the Office seeks an attorney with expertise and experience in workers’ compensation laws and practice, including significant trial and reconsideration experience at both the Workers Compensation Appeal Board and in an ADR program setting.  This includes the ability to rate and analyze medical reports, value and recommend settlements to our claims adjusters, conduct extensive discovery, depose injured workers and physicians, and effectively represent and advocate for the City in proceedings. 

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications

• Licensed to practice law in California.

Desired Qualifications

• Five or more years of legal experience, including experience in all subject matters noted above.
• Excellent oral and written communication and advocacy skills.
• Ability to draft and review Petitions, Points and Authorities, and Appeals.
• Ability to exercise good judgment, multi-task, and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work directly with the client in a collaborative environment while maintaining appropriate professional objectivity.
• Ability to assume responsibility quickly and work independently and efficiently.
• Ability to manage and appropriately balance an active workload and adjust to occasional workload increases. 
• Strong interpersonal skills and a positive attitude.
• Demonstrated commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment.
• Desire and ability to work successfully as part of a team.

Application

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

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 next stage of the selection process. The stated desirable qualifications may be considered at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring. 

What else should I know?

Salary and Benefits

The Deputy City Attorney position has a 16-step salary scale ranging from $147,914 to $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 is available 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
• 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

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 Jumy Dang, Senior Human Resources Analyst, at jumy.dang@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.