Staff Attorney

About the role

The City of New York’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) is the nation’s largest administrative tribunal, holding over 250,000 trials and hearings annually. OATH adjudicates a wide range of matters filed by nearly every city agency, board, and commission. OATH also houses the Center for Creative Conflict Resolution, which provides mediation and restorative justice support to City government agencies and the general public, and the Administrative Judicial Institute, a resource center that offers training, continuing education, research, and support services for administrative law judges and hearing officers.

Responsibilities

• Adjudicating all types of administrative hearings.
• Assisting in directing the legal operation of the office, including ensuring the quality and consistency of all legal decisions rendered by the office, coordinating daily assignments of Judicial Hearing Officers, and performing legal review and other administrative duties.
• Maintaining procedures to ensure that cases are heard and decisions rendered in a timely manner.
• Maintaining procedures, including databases or other systems, to effectively manage productivity, timeliness, and staffing needs.
• Handling special assignments and projects, including oral and/or written presentations.
• Knowledgeably and accurately conveying agency policy to the public.
• Ensuring cooperative interaction between the office’s administrative and legal personnel.
• Acting as legal advisor to the office’s administrative personnel and cooperatively interacting with the office’s administrative personnel.

Requirements

• Admission to the New York State Bar; and either one year of satisfactory United States legal experience subsequent to admission to any state bar, or six months of satisfactory service as an Agency Attorney Interne (30086).
• To be assigned to Assignment Level (AL) II, candidates must have one year of experience at Assignment Level I or two years of comparable legal experience subsequent to admission to the bar, in the areas of law related to the assignment. To be assigned to AL III, candidates must have two years of experience in Assignment Levels I and/or II or three years of comparable legal experience subsequent to admission to the bar, in the areas of law related to the assignment.

Qualifications

• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent writing, legal research, and analytical skills.
• Strong organizational, management, and training skills.
• Supervisory experience preferred.
• Computer skills in Microsoft Word, Access, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Benefits

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/.

Additional Information

• New York City residency is not required for this position.
• 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.