Deputy City Attorney - Strategic Advocacy Team - City Attorney's Office (8177)

Company Description

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: July 14, 2025
• Application Deadline: Continuous, earliest close 5:00 p.m. Monday, July 28, 2025
• Compensation Range: $153,140 - $268,320
• Recruitment ID: RTF0157310-01076889

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for an experienced and motivated attorney to join its Strategic Advocacy 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 the City and County of San Francisco and its residents. With 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 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 an inclusive workplace where employees feel they belong and can meaningfully contribute, please visit: https://www.sfcityattorney.org/aboutus/dei/.

Currently, 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/.

Job Description

About the Strategic Advocacy Team

The Strategic Advocacy Team is a new team established to respond to complex and novel issues at the intersection of litigation and advice work.  Currently the team is exclusively focused on developing, coordinating, and implementing strategies to respond to federal administration actions that threaten the City and County of San Francisco and its residents.  In the future, the team may also address other major issues that require significant litigation and legal counsel. The team acts as a force multiplier that allows the Office to leverage internal and external resources to deliver meaningful results on high-priority matters.

Our litigation docket is currently in federal court and generally involves cases with significant public policy implications, constitutional claims, novel legal issues, and multiple parties.  Our advice work typically addresses matters of citywide concern or issues that relate to pending or anticipated litigation.  We also handle projects and assignments that extend beyond traditional legal work.  No task is too big or too small for this team, and we aspire to be low ego, high energy, creative, collaborative, and nimble. 

Deputy City Attorney Position and Responsibilities

Attorneys on the team handle both litigation and advice matters, as well as special projects and external coordination on assigned matters.  These matters typically require team members to work collaboratively with other lawyers and professional staff across the Office, as well as with other City agencies. Team members also collaborate with other local and state law offices, non-profit organizations, private law firms, and academia.

Attorneys perform complex legal and factual research; monitor and analyze executive, legislative, and regulatory actions; identify litigation trends and propose litigation strategies; and provide written and oral reports to the City Attorney and other City officials.  In litigation, attorneys are responsible for case development; drafting and reviewing complaints, motions and briefs; working with client departments, in