Attorney III

State of North Carolina•Raleigh, NC

23h•Hybrid

About The Position

The primary purpose of this Attorney III position is to provide professional litigation services, legal analysis, and thoughtful, meaningful legal advice to mid-level, senior, and executive managers of DAC. This position shares responsibility with several other attorney positions for providing all legal support services and such other duties as assigned. As one of the largest state agencies, DPS houses the following Divisions: NC State Highway Patrol; NC Alcohol Law Enforcement Division (ALE); State Capitol Police; Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Emergency Management, the North Carolina Office of Resiliency and Recovery, the North Carolina National Guard, and the Crime Victims Compensation Commission.

Requirements

Licensed to practice law by the North Carolina State Bar
Three years of progressively responsible professional legal experience.

Nice To Haves

5 years of progressive civil litigation experience preferred.
Experience in trial courts, particularly federal courts, preferred.
Jury trial experience preferred, but not required.
Legal research and writing experience preferred

Responsibilities

Conducts, independently or as a member of a litigation team, civil litigation in state administrative and trial courts, federal trial courts, and associated appellate courts in simple to very complex cases.
Identifies legal issues, gathers and analyzes information, conducts factual research, analyzes the relevant law, and applies the relevant law to the factual information in the case setting.
Develops, plans, and executes a legal strategy to achieve the desired case result.
Investigates and drafts accurate factual and legal claims and defenses.
Propounds meaningful discovery requests, reviews, analyzes, and responds to discovery requests, and conducts meaningful depositions.
Possesses and employs sophisticated knowledge of evidentiary, procedural, and substantive law.
Conducts persuasive arguments to judges and juries.
Communicates effectively and cogently with client agency and counsel for adverse party to facilitate settlement of disputed claims.
Identifies and analyzes compliance options for client agency.
Drafts and negotiates consent orders and settlement documents.
Drafts pleadings, motions, orders, discovery requests and responses, and correspondence to comport with applicable law, agency rules and procedures, and the relevant rules of court.
Composes, edits, and coordinates independently the preparation of legal memoranda and other case support administrative correspondence to communicate information to client agency, court personnel, and opposing counsel.
Assists client agency in drafting proposed legislation.
Analyzes proposed legislation for impact to client agency and existing programs, and recommends amendments to existing legislation to further goals and mission of client agency.
Performs legal research manually and electronically from various sources, including Lexis-Nexis, Department of Justice and other law libraries, and assorted web-based sites.
Independently researches simple to very complex legal issues.
Verifies current status of cited legal authority for research, memoranda, and briefs.
Independently investigates accuracy of allegations contained in legal documents of adverse party.
Collects documents and other information necessary to respond to allegations, and analyzes such collections for accuracy and relevance.
Interviews potential witnesses, and obtains statements from defendants, witnesses, and experts to support the trial strategy and plan.
Reviews proposed evidence, and analyzes and assimilates the data to support the trial strategy and plan.
Researches all relevant source material and legal precedents, and provides legal advice to the client agency by means of formal and informal written opinions, training assistance, and policy review.
In consultation with the Section Supervisor, provides recommendations to the client agency to improve its operational efficiency in order to reduce its exposure to liability.
Reviews trial transcripts and other documents, researches legal issues identified in the record of appeal and defendant’s appellate brief, and composes state’s appellate brief in response.
Conducts oral argument in Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.
Responds to inquiries from citizens, local and state government officials, and members of the General Assembly as assigned.
Attends public hearings and legislative committee meetings as assigned.