Senior Litigation Attorney

Agency Summary  

The Office of Corporation Counsel (OCC) provides legal services to the City and County through its three main divisions. First, OCC represents the City, County agencies, and City-County employees in litigation, handling adiverse docket that ranges from tort and contract matters to constitutional law. Second, through its counseling division, OCC provides legal advice to City and County agencies, officials, and oversight bodies to ensure that public entities remain compliant with the law and standards of ethical conduct, to safeguard public funds, and to promote the efficient functioning of local government for Marion County taxpayers. OCC’s third division is the Office of the City Prosecutor, which is responsible for enforcing City-County ordinances. OCC also oversees the Office of Equal Opportunity, which administers the City’s human rights ordinance, protecting against discrimination in employment and other contexts. In exercising these crucial legal functions, OCC cultivates a productive, collaborative, and compliant work environment that prioritizes the needs of our clients and the residents of Indianapolis and Marion County.

Job Summary

The holder of this position will be a senior attorney handling a wide range of civil litigation matters on behalf of City-County agencies, with a focus on more complex or high-stakes matters that require significant professional experience and/or subject-matter expertise. The primary responsibility of a senior litigation attorney is to represent the City-County and related agencies in civil litigation matters in state and federal court. The City-County is involved in a diverse array of litigation matters, including federal civil rights suits, tort claims, contract disputes, prisoner litigation, appeals at the state and federal level, and administrative and regulatory matters. Senior litigation attorneys handle all facets of complex civil litigation. On many cases, the holder of this position will assume the role of the primary attorney. This role representing our public agency clients includes preparing complaints, answers, and other pleadings; researching and filing motions and briefs; handling discovery and depositions; judicial hearings; settlement negotiations; and trial advocacy. Front-line litigation attorneys benefit from the assistance of more experience co-counsel and supervisors in many cases, but should expect to have immediate responsibility for handling a diverse, challenging caseload. As a senior litigation attorney, this position holder will take responsibility for lawsuits that are highly sensitive in nature, involve significant potential financial liability, implicate complex legal issues, or involve complicated discovery and case management challenges. On other matters, the senior litigation attorney will play a “second chair” role, handling some aspects of a case while another attorney occupies the lead role. In such cases, the senior attorney’s role may be to provide high level guidance to a more junior attorney who is handling the day-to-day aspects of a case. This high-level guidance includes strategic direction, client communications, review of the junior attorney’s work, and communications with opposing counsel. In some other cases, the senior attorney may assist another senior attorney in handling certain discrete aspects of the case, in-depth legal research of issues presented by a case, communicating with client agencies and employees as part of the discovery process, assisting in the drafting of pleadings, briefs, and other court filings, and other essentials of diligent case management. As a senior litigation attorney, the position holder will have opportunities to carve out areas of expertise and specialization, but will still handle a diverse caseload. The position holder will serve as an assistant corporation counsel within OCC’s litigation division.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The City of Indianapolis Marion County is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.We value diversity in perspectives and experiences among colleagues and the residents of this city of whom we serve.