What are the responsibilities and job description for the Economic and Community Development - Paralegal position at City of Dallas?
Economic and Community Development – General Counsel Division : Paralegal
Dallas City Attorney’s Office
The Dallas City Attorney’s Office is seeking a paralegal with experience in public information law for the General Counsel Division. The General Counsel Division handles the city’s contracts, ordinances, and real estate transaction documents, assists with the city’s open records requests, and provides legal advice and counsel to the city council, city boards and commissions, and city staff.
The successful candidate will work closely with assistant city attorneys, the City Secretary’s Office, and the City Manager’s Office to represent the city’s interests regarding the Texas Public Information Act (“TPIA”). Specifically, the successful candidate will work with the City Secretary’s Office, the open records center manager, and departmental open records coordinators to review open records requests, manage and maintain calendaring deadlines, assist in preparing documents for public release, and redact or review redaction of confidential information. The successful candidate will also work with city staff to determine which requests require an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General, prepare correspondence, memoranda, reports, and other documents, submit opinion requests to the Office of the Attorney General, perform electronic mail and file searches for records requests, and stay informed of possible and pending litigation and legal holds on records that would require an Attorney General Opinion, if requested.
The successful candidate will also assist with cross-training staff in all records request processes and systems, assist with maintaining and updating city open records policies and procedures in accordance with the TPIA, assist to prepare and conduct trainings on open records processes, and stay informed of changes to open records laws, administrative decisions and cases that require updates to city open records policies and procedures. The successful candidate will also serve as a point of contact with department liaisons regarding open records and assist with responding to inquiries regarding clarification requests and assist with calculating or assessing permissible charges in accordance with the TPIA. Other duties may be assigned.
Candidates must have a paralegal certificate or a bachelor’s degree in a related field. Candidates must be proficient in Word, Excel, Adobe, Westlaw, and Lexis and be able to work well under pressure with multiple deadlines, and at times, work efficiently in stressful situations. In addition, candidates must be proficient in identifying confidential or sensitive information for redaction in accordance with the TPIA or other applicable state and federal laws and must be willing to train on other software used in connection with the city’s open records requests such as GovQA and e-filings with the Office of the Attorney General. Salary is commensurate with experience. The city's comprehensive benefits package comes with the position. This position is exempt from the provisions applicable to civil service, pursuant to Chapter XVI, Section 9 of the Dallas City Charter. Details concerning the Dallas City Attorney's Office are available at
If interested, please send a cover letter, resume, and three references, to :
attresumes@dallas.gov
No phone calls, please.
