Principal Assistant State's Attorney

Lake County•Waukegan, IL

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Civil Division of the State’s Attorney’s Office offers a rewarding work environment for attorneys. ASAs in the Civil Division act as lead attorneys in handling their own docket of cases representing County employees and elected officials in employment, civil rights, tax, land use, and environmental litigation. Each Civil Division attorney is assigned as corporate counsel to client departments and/or elected officials on their unique legal issues. A Principal Assistant State's Attorney typically handles their caseload independently, but with ample support and collaboration opportunities with colleagues. Our attorneys work hard, but also put significant emphasis on work-life balance.

Requirements

Completion of a Juris Doctorate degree program from an American Bar Association-approved law school.
A minimum of ten (10) years of experience as a licensed attorney; alternatively, a similar amount of experience working with and representing local governments is preferred.
Licensed Attorney in the State of Illinois.
Comprehensive knowledge of Illinois and Federal law, local court procedures, rules of civil procedure and the rules of evidence.
Considerable knowledge of federal and state appellate procedures
Strong research, analytical, and negotiation skills.
Ability to clearly communicate legal recommendations to clients and elected officials.
Ability to analyze, appraise, and organize facts, evidence, and precedents and to present such materials effectively
Demonstrated ability to provide professional and persuasive court presentations.
Good knowledge of PC operations and software (word processing, spreadsheet, and document scanning, editing, and management system, i.e., Acrobat/Adobe) is required.
Familiarity with federal and state e-filing systems.
Good typing skills are also required.
Ability to maintain pleasant working relationships with judges, attorneys, co-workers, elected officials, county clients and the public.
Ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

Nice To Haves

Experience in one or more areas of law strongly preferred: experience handling Section 1983 litigation, labor and employment matters, employment litigation, labor arbitrations, transactional work, drafting legislative enactments or ordinances, experience advising clients on the OMA or FOIA, work related to taxing bodies, and/or environmental litigation.

Responsibilities

Conducts complex litigation in all stages, including filing, discovery, settlement negotiations, and trial.
Manages state and federal cases independently, including any resulting appeals.
Provides legal advice and legal opinions and support to elected officials and clients.
Assists other assistant state’s attorneys in the division in areas of expertise.
Assists in preparing and reviewing ordinances, resolutions, contracts, and other legal documents.
Takes direction from supervisors.
Performs comprehensive research utilizing Westlaw and other electronic legal research software.