Staff Counsel

Overview

Job Description And Duties Department of Industrial Relations, Office of the Director—Legal Unit.

Under the general direction of the Chief Counsel of the Office of the Director Legal Unit ( OD—Legal), the assistant Chief Counsels, Staff Counsel represent the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations, the Department, and division chiefs and managers in a variety of subject areas within the responsibility and jurisdiction of the Department.

Staff Counsel are expected to work with broad discretion and independence to perform the more complex and higher level work of OD—Legal. As a mid-level attorney, the incumbent is expected to develop subject matter expertise in one or more areas of the Department’s responsibility. Duties include but are not limited to: representing the Director of DIR in workers’ compensation cases involving special funds administered by the Director;

analyzing requests for public works coverage determinations and drafting proposed decisions for the Director’s review; serving as a hearing officer in appeals from assessments for prevailing wage violations and drafting proposed decisions for the Director’s review; representing the Department in internal personnel matters; representing the Department, Director, or one of DIR’s divisions in civil and writ litigation; providing counsel on apprenticeship matters;

analyzing and drafting recommended decisions in appeals from retaliation complaint investigations; providing analysis and advice concerning Public Records Act requests; analyzing and drafting proposed legislation; providing legal services with respect to contract matters involving the Department; drafting proposed regulations; and providing legal services on a wide variety of other issues that may arise in the operation of the Department.

Attorneys are expected to work all hours necessary to accomplish their assignments, and although they will generally average 40 hours a week, longer work hours may occasionally be required.

This posting may be used to fill future vacancies in accordance with 2 CCR 249.3.

To be considered for this Attorney III job opportunity, applicants must be either reachable on an employment list, have transfer eligibility or have reinstatement eligibility. To take the exam and gain employment list eligibility, please  to access the exam bulletin:

Effective July 1, 2025, specific Bargaining Units and associated Excluded State employees are subject to a salary reduction between 2% - 4.62% in exchange for hours in the Personal Leave Program 2025 (PLP 2025) per month. For more details, please  to visit the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) website.

You will find additional information about the job in the Duty Statement
.

The position is located in Los Angeles, CA. This is a full-time position in an office environment on the 18th floor of a 45-story office building located at 355 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California. Employees in this position work at desks and are required to work extensively on computers for drafting letters, briefs, and other documents, and for research, email communication, file review, training, and other purposes.

Attorneys are expected to handle their own word processing, and secretarial support.

Must be a member of the California Bar and qualified to practice law in California. The minimum requirements are defined in the Class Specification for Attorney III.

Completed applications and all required documents must be received or postmarked by the Final Filing Date in order to be considered. Dates printed on Mobile Bar Codes, such as the Quick Response (QR) Codes available at the USPS, are not considered Postmark dates for the purpose of determining timely filing of an application.

Final Filing Date: 2/16/2026

Who May Apply:
Individuals who are currently in the classification, eligible for lateral transfer, eligible for reinstatement, have list or LEAP eligibility, are in the process of obtaining list eligibility, or have SROA and/or Surplus eligibility (please attach your letter, if available). SROA and Surplus candidates are…