Position Description This is a promotional opportunity restricted to current City of Minneapolis employees in the City Attorney's Office According to the City Charter, the attorneys of the CAO serve as the attorneys and counselors at law to the mayor, city council, boards, committees, departments, and officers. The attorneys of the CAO are the exclusive representatives of the City. They can provide legal advice and opinions to the City, its officers, and staff. The purpose of the Senior Assistant City Attorney position is to provide advanced civil litigation representation, civil transactional representation, and legal drafting, legal advice and consulting, and criminal prosecution legal services for a wide range of matters, often with a high degree of difficulty complexity and public visibility, to or on behalf of the elected officials, management, representatives of assigned departments, boards, commissions and agencies of the City of Minneapolis. The SACA trains and mentors other attorneys. An Assistant City Attorney may apply for this promotional opportunity if they: (1) have six or more years of experience as a licensed attorney, or will meet this minimum experience requirement during 2026; and (2) meet the performance evaluation score threshold of the Promotional Criteria (overall score in most recent performance evaluation of at least 4, with each section score of at least 4) (collectively, "Promotion Benchmark"). Under the applicable labor agreement, if an Assistant City Attorney has been approved for promotion to Senior Assistant City Attorney but does not yet meet the minimum experience requirement, that employee's promotion will be effective on the date in 2026 upon which they meet said requirement. To be considered for a promotional posting, an applicant must: 1. Meet the Promotion Benchmark 2. Prepare and submit, as directed in the posting, a resume 3. Prepare and submit, as directed in the posting, a cover letter. Applications that do not include submissions shall be deemed incomplete and not considered. The Cover Letter should address the following: 1. The minimum amount of experience to be eligible for promotion/reclassification to Senior Assistant City Attorney is six (6) or more years of experience as a licensed attorney. Clerkships during law school do not count toward this minimum. Explain briefly how you meet this minimum criteria, including how many of those years of licensed practice were spent working in areas of law directly applicable to your current practice area for which you are seeking reclassification to a Senior Assistant City Attorney. In addition, explain how that experience contributed to your legal knowledge and technical skill in your current practice area, and why you believe you have the legal knowledge and technical skill in your practice area sufficient for a Senior level of competence. 2. Your scores in each section of your 2025 and 2026 performance evaluations. 3. Briefly address criteria 1-7 of the promotional criteria listed on page 1 of the attached below and why you think you satisfy the criteria. Promotional Criteria: Consistent demonstrated performance and expectations for an Assistant City Attorney in the following attorney core competencies (this looks at current performance beyond the time of the last performance evaluation, as well as core competencies that may be beyond the specific items that are reviewed in the performance evaluation): Legal knowledge and technical skills in the relevant practice area, including legal research skills Organizational and prioritization skills Work ethic, drive, diligence Complex problem solving, decision making sometimes with supervision Communication skills Teamwork/collaboration skills Contributions to CAO, the enterprise, legal systems Commitment to equity At least some demonstration of leadership Capacity to handle future highly complex projects and make quality decisions with minimal supervision or oversight. Capacity in the future to take initiative to identify and solve issues and make or recommend improvement without waiting to be assigned. Overall score in most recent performance evaluation of a least 4, with each section score of a least 4 Consideration of active unresolved filed complaints about the candidate's behavior (e.g., ethics complaints, ADH&R complaints) No discipline in the 5 years prior to promotion request No performance improvement plans of letters of expectation in the 3 years prior to promotion request. Work Location: This position may be eligible for flexible work arrangements, including hybrid work with some days working remotely and some days working in the office. Job Duties and Responsibilities 1. Represent the City in Transactional Legal Matters and Provide Legal Opinion, Advice, and Drafting. Conducted legal research, interpreted, and applied federal, state, and local law to provide advice, opinions, and consultative assistance to elected officials, enterprise leadership, and appointed boards and commissions on various city issues, including highly complex ones. Advise on applying legal requirements to specific data and facts. Advise on the defensibility and risk of City policies and procedures. Make or facilitate legal determinations based on factual situations in the City. Represent the CAO position in meetings with department staff, enterprise leadership, and, from time to time, elected officials. Research, negotiate, and draft leases, deeds, liens on real property, lien releases, sales agreements, contracts, memoranda of understanding, and similar documents. Structure, negotiate, draft, and close highly complex financing and real estate transactions. Serve as members of various enterprise policymaking and policy-implementation teams (e.g., data breach response team). Lead/work on cross-departmental multi-disciplinary work groups and task forces to develop and implement policies. Staff subcommittee meetings of the City Council and meetings of appointed boards and commissions to provide legal advice on substantive and procedural questions in real-time. Serve as subject matter experts, assisting with litigation matters. Partner with and provide legal consultation on collaborations with internal and external stakeholders in support of the Mayor's and City Council's policy-making functions. Manage assigned client department expectations, setting priorities and mutually agreeable timelines. Research and draft ordinances, resolutions, and other legislative documents. Prepare and conduct public presentations and provide training on various highly complex legal and compliance topics to other attorneys, city departments, elected officials, and outside partner agencies. Foster relationships of trust with elected officials, department heads, city staff, state and federal judges, partner agencies, other governmental subdivisions, and internal colleagues. Provide training to and mentor other attorneys. 2. Represent the City in All Stages of Civil Litigation Matters Analyze pleadings to determine legal issues, immunities, and liabilities. Establish an efficient and effective research plan to determine a case's proper course of action. Conduct research using a caselaw database, such as Westlaw, to locate relevant controlling or persuasive cases that address specific legal issues presented in litigation. Apply case law to the facts in a persuasive briefing to the court with proper assertions of support cited accurately from case law. Respond within time-sensitive timelines to discovery requests with responses asserting appropriate defenses and seek requests to reinforce City defenses and minimize liability. * Gather relevant documents and... For full info follow application link. The City of Minneapolis is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer.
