Staff Attorney Job Description

General Job Description

A staff attorney in the Office of Legislative Legal Services (Office) is an entry-level attorney who has not yet worked for the Office long enough or consistently performed at a high enough level over time to warrant his or her promotion to staff attorney II.  Unless the Office designates a staff attorney as an attorney whose primary responsibility is to perform a specialized function such as rule review or the preparation of annotations for publication,¹ a staff attorney generally contributes to the Office's execution of its core legislative drafting and legal services functions by:

• Drafting legislation and amendments to legislation for legislators and their representatives;
• Performing legal research;
• Independently drafting and, when appropriate, working with other Office staff or legislative staff to draft written work product, including legal, research, initiative review and comment, and rule review memorandums;
• Annotating Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases that apply or interpret the Colorado constitution, the Colorado Revised Statutes, or Colorado Court Rules;
• As necessary, attending and asking and answering questions at legislative committee and initiative review and comment meetings; and
• Completing special projects and other assigned tasks.

Essential Job Functions              

A staff attorney:

• Drafts legislation and amendments to legislation that are legally correct, accurately reflect the intent of their sponsors, are written comprehensibly in grammatically correct plain English, and adhere to all other Office style and format requirements;
• Monitors the progress of the legislation that he or she drafts throughout the legislative process and updates summaries of the legislation to accurately reflect the effect of all amendments adopted in the first house;
• Performs legal and general research and drafts legal and research memorandums;
• Responds to questions, requests for information, and, when appropriate, comments regarding the law, pending or proposed legislation, and other Office work product from legislators, legislative staff, executive branch staff, lobbyists, other interested persons, and the general public;
• Attends legislative committee of reference meetings, responds to technical and legal questions concerning legislation pending before the committees, and conducts legal research requested by the committees;
• Attends legislative interim committee meetings, conducts legal research requested by the committees, drafts legislation requested by the committees, presents the draft legislation to the committees, and responds to technical and legal questions regarding the draft legislation;
• Reviews executive branch agency rules to determine whether they are within the rule-making authority of the promulgating agency and drafts rule review memorandums that explain why unauthorized rules should not be extended;
• Reviews newly enacted legislation in order to determine whether the legislation requires or authorizes an executive branch agency to promulgate administrative rules so that the Office can notify state departments that changes to agency rules may be necessary or appropriate;
• Drafts summaries of enacted legislation for publication in the annual Digest of Bills;
• Annotates Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases that apply or interpret the Colorado constitution, the Colorado Revised Statutes, or Colorado Court Rules; and
• Works with Legislative Council Staff to develop appropriate questions for and draft initiative review and comment memorandums and to conduct review and comment meetings with initiative proponents and independently drafts preliminary ballot titles and submission clauses for initiatives submitted to the Secretary of State for consideration by the Title Board.

Other Job Functions

The Office may ask a staff attorney to:

• Assist with the conduct of litigation involving the General Assembly;
• Develop or conduct, or assist other Office staff in developing or conducting, in-house professional development programs or other training or informational presentations for members or staff of the General Assembly;
• Work one-on-one as a "buddy" for one or more new legislators in order to develop and enhance their knowledge of and help them more efficiently and effectively navigate the legislative process;
• Assist in the preparation of the Colorado Revised Statutes for publication by reviewing titles and indexing newly enacted legislation; or
• Complete special projects and other assigned tasks.

The extent to which a staff attorney assumes and successfully executes "other" job functions is a factor that the Office will consider in evaluating the staff attorney's job performance on an ongoing basis and when conducting his or her annual performance review.

Job Expectations

The Office expects a staff attorney to meaningfully contribute to the execution of the Office's core legislative drafting and legal services functions immediately upon being hired and to demonstrate a consistent commitment to developing the professional skills and subject-matter expertise needed to increase the extent and quality of his or her contributions as rapidly as is feasible.  While the Office generally does not expect a staff attorney to handle as large, complex, or varied of a workload as that typically handled by a staff attorney II or any other higher level attorney, the Office does expect a staff attorney to know and meet the requirements and standards set forth in the Office's "General Job Qualifications/Skills and Professionalism Standards".  The Office also expects a staff attorney, in addition to fulfilling all essential job functions and any other job functions that the Office requests that he or she perform, to:

• Rapidly develop sufficient subject-matter knowledge to provide accurate, useful, and understandable information and reliable legal advice;
• Use his or her analytical, problem-solving, and communications skills and good judgment to identify potential solutions to legal and other problems and make and implement timely decisions independently or after consulting with his or her team leader or other Office staff as appropriate;
• Conduct research that is relevant, accurate, and thorough;
• Draft memorandums that are factually and legally accurate, well-reasoned, and written comprehensibly in grammatically correct plain English;
• When reviewing rules, understand applicable statutes and appropriate review criteria and demonstrate a commitment to thoroughness as evidenced by questions asked, issues raised for discussion, and actual problems identified;
• Accurately identify and summarize relevant holdings and comply with applicable Office style and format requirements when annotating Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases;
• Draft summaries of enacted legislation for the annual Digest of Bills that accurately, concisely, and clearly summarize the contents and legal effect of the legislation and conform with applicable Office style and format requirements;
• Thoroughly proof bills that have been amended during the legislative process and identify for the Publications Team any technical or substantive errors or oversights found; and
• Seek out or readily accept special projects in the Office, serve on internal Office committees, and successfully perform other duties assigned by his or her team leader, the director, or other Office staff.
  

¹The job functions and job expectations set forth in this job description apply to a staff attorney whose primary responsibility is to perform a specialized function only to the extent that the Office requires or encourages the staff attorney to perform the functions or meet the expectations.  The Office does, however, expect such a staff attorney to know and meet the requirements and standards set forth in the Office's "General Job Qualifications/Skills and Professionalism Standards".

Note:  This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications associated with the job.