Deputy City Attorney - Ethics & Elections Team - City Attorney's Office (8177)

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: March 3, 2026
• Application Deadline: Continuous, earliest close 5:00 p.m. Monday, March 16, 2025
• Compensation Range: $155,428-$272,350
• Recruitment ID: RTF0163587-01076960

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for a qualified and motivated attorney to join its Ethics & Elections 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 nearly 350 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, and 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, 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/.

The Office offers a hybrid work schedule for eligible employees.

To learn more about the City Attorney's Office please visit our website.

About the Ethics & Elections Team

The Ethics & Elections Team serves as general counsel to the San Francisco Ethics Commission, Department of Elections, Elections Commission, Ballot Simplification Committee, and Redistricting Task Force. The Team regularly provides advice about ethics, conflict of interest, campaign finance, and elections-related matters to the City’s elected officials, department heads, commissioners, and employees, and drafts legislation within its subject matter expertise. The Team also provides legal ethics advice to employees in the City Attorney’s Office.

Deputy City Attorney Position and Responsibilities

An attorney on the Ethics & Elections Team performs many functions – providing legal interpretations and advice, both orally and in writing, formally and informally, on a one-on-one basis or at public meetings. The attorney’s role includes interpreting the requirements of a City ordinance or advising on the legal risks of a particular government action; drafting ordinances, ballot measures, and administrative regulations; reviewing contracts for legal sufficiency; and providing legal advice to commissioners before and during commission meetings. The attorney will also frequently communicate and coordinate with other deputy city attorneys and officials across City government and provide training on ethics issues to City employees and other deputy city attorneys.

Minimum Qualifications

• Licensed to practice law in California.

Desired Qualifications

• Three or more years practicing as an attorney;
• Experience serving in an advice capacity as a government lawyer, ideally with some experience in ethics, conflict of interest, campaign finance, and elections-related laws;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, especially when explaining legal concepts and rules to non-lawyer clients;
• Excellent legal analytical skills;
• Ability to listen to client concerns, and develop appropriate options and solutions;
• Commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment;
• Strong interpersonal skills and a positive attitude;
• Ability to quickly prioritize among different legal issues and assess legal risks;
• Ability to assume responsibility for assignments and to work independently and efficiently;
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues; and
• Ability to manage and appropriately balance multiple assignments, meet deadlines, and adjust to fluctuations in workload.

Verification

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements.

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to comparatively evaluate the qualifications of candidates. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited to participate in the oral/performance interview.

Salary and Benefits

The Deputy City Attorney position has a 16-step salary scale ranging from $155,428 to $272,350. The successful applicant is appointed to a salary step based on years of experience as a lawyer. The City offers robust health, retirement and other benefits. For more information please visit: https://sfdhr.org/benefits-overview. Attorneys are represented by the Municipal Attorneys Association. Information about compensation and benefits is available by entering Classification Code 8177 at https://careers.sf.gov/classifications/.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “Apply Now” button and follow instructions on the screen
• Make sure to include your CA Bar Number in the education section on your application
• Upload a Cover Letter and a Resume

Applicants who advance in the selection process must submit two references and one writing sample.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfcityatty.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Human Resources Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please send your inquires to Jumy Dang, Senior Human Resources Analyst, at [email protected].

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.