Assistant Attorney General - Agriculture & Health Division, Olympia

State of Washington•Thurston County – Olympia, WA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Agriculture and Health Division (AHD) of the Washington State Attorney General's Office seeks to fill an Assistant Attorney General (AAG) position. The Agriculture and Health Division is a team of 16 Assistant Attorneys General and 9 professional staff located at the AGO’s main Capitol Campus location in Olympia, WA. We have a wide range of backgrounds, value diversity, and work in a collegial, collaborative, and flexible environment. Our work touches most aspects of Washingtonians’ lives by helping to protect and promote public health and our state’s economic, cultural, and environmental resources. Our primary client agencies are the Department of Health, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, and we advise numerous related boards and commissions. We provide client advice and litigate cases in a wide array of areas with real world impacts, including environmental and public health; licensing and oversight of health care providers and facilities; disease prevention and control; affordable housing and housing development; homelessness prevention and response; broadband expansion; renewable energy, climate change, and environmental justice; community and economic development; historic and archaeological resource preservation; and animal, commodity, food, and plant safety.

Requirements

Graduated from a law school accredited by the ABA or completed the WSBA's Rule 6 Law Clerk Program
Licensed to practice law in Washington state (Applicants who meet the other stated qualifications and are actively pursuing admission by motion will also be considered.)
Strong analytical, research, and writing skills
Effective Communicator: Ability to communicate well both verbally and in writing in a manner that is respectful of a variety of audiences and views, and demonstrates good listening skills
Working Relationships: Ability to maintain productive working relationships within the division and with clients and stakeholders, helping to identify and resolve problems
Well-organized: Ability to balance and prioritize a mixed workload to provide timely client services and meet deadlines
Intellectual curiosity: Willingness to learn complex concepts, capacity to thrive in an environment of highly varied work where colleagues expect to share issues, strategies, and legal theories
Committed to public service as demonstrated by an applicant's background, talents, attitude, and enthusiasm for public law practice.

Responsibilities

Provide client advice and administrative and civil litigation services to various client agencies and programs.
Represent health care provider and facility licensing programs administered by the Department of Health and related boards and commissions.
May provide counsel to programs within the Department of Agriculture.
May represent programs within the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, with the potential for the right candidate to eventually take on a lead counsel role for the agency.
Advise clients on common agency issues related to statutory and regulatory authority, legislation, rulemaking, public records, Open Public Meetings Act, and other matters.
Engage in administrative litigation primarily before the Department of Health’s Adjudicative Services Unit, with occasional appeals to state courts, and, less commonly, defend agencies against original actions in state and federal courts.