Special Counsel for Federal Affairs

This position can sit in Albany, NY or New York, NY

The Executive Chamber is the Office of the Governor that assists Governor Kathy Hochul in managing State government. The Executive Chamber is seeking a highly motivated and experienced attorney to serve as Special Counsel. The Special Counsel serves under the general supervision of the Counsel to the Governor and Deputy Counsels and will advise state agencies and Chamber stakeholders on a range of legal and compliance issues related to federal funding.

To succeed in this role, you must be an experienced attorney with substantial experience practicing in a congressional, federal agency, or other federal executive branch capacity. Experience with federal funding sources, compliance, and regulatory policy across federal agencies are required. Substantial litigation experience, including from the client side, is also a plus. You must be a proactive leader, effective manager, excellent writer and communicator, and facilitator of a collaborative environment. You must be able to identify legal issues and risk across various units and operations. You must possess excellent time management and organizational skills and be able to oversee a wide range of priorities and competing tasks. You must be able to exercise impeccable judgment in a high stress and fast-paced environment.

Travel between NYC and Albany offices may be required.

Specific Duties Include:

• Serve as the legal subject matter expert on laws and regulations governing federal funding across a range of State agencies that may receive or administer federal funds.
• Serve, along with others in Counsel’s Office, as liaison to State agencies on federal funding issues, including federal grant applications and management.
• Provide strategic counsel to State agencies to proactively identify and mitigate risk and ensure integrity around federal funding and other interactions with the federal government.
• Advise, guide, and collaborate with agency counsels and the Office of the Attorney General or outside counsel on litigation and pre-litigation strategies.
• Report, summarize, and present information to the Governor, senior staff, executive, cross-functional teams, and outside stakeholders.
• Provide strategic legal counseling and subject matter expertise to address the needs of the Executive Chamber and State agencies relating to federal and state legislation, rulemaking, and operations.
• Provide programmatic legal support to Counsel’s Office staff to ensure accuracy and timely implementation of policies, responses to issues, and programs.
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with Executive Chamber Assistant and Senior Counsels, the office of Federal Affairs, Deputy Secretaries, Agency General Counsels, outside organizations, experts, advocates, and other institutions.
• Conduct legal research and draft memoranda as requested.
• Perform other related duties as assigned by the Counsel or Deputy Counsels.

Minimum Qualifications:

Must have a Juris Doctorate from an accredited law school, be a member in good standing with the New York State Bar, and a minimum of 8 years of relevant and progressively responsible legal work experience. Previous experience in a leadership role as an attorney in the federal government is strongly preferred.

Additionally, candidates should have some combination of the following knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Experience with the federal regulatory process and processes related to federal funding, including applications for funding and administration of federal funding programs.
• Experience advocating before federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget, either internally or externally.
• Experience administering federal funds to subgrantees.
• Experience with legislative drafting and negotiation.
• Knowledge of New York state law, legislation, and agencies is preferred.
• Litigation experience, particularly in sensitive and fast-paced matters related to compliance with federal funding laws and regulations and/or federal contracts.
• Ability to make excellent judgments, and exercise critical, analytical, and problem-solving skills under pressure and at times with extreme time sensitivity.
• Ability to compile, evaluate and interpret information and data from a variety of information sources.
• Ability to independently discern priority projects.
• Ability to prioritize and complete work assignments in a timely manner.
• Ability to identify the most effective and efficient method to carry out duties.
• Excellent organizational skills to manage a varied and high-volume workload.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with an attention to detail are required, including the ability to communicate complex information to a lay audience.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to interact with colleagues and senior leadership inside and outside the Executive Chamber.
• Excellent record management skills with the ability to follow-up as necessary.
• Excellent familiarity with Microsoft software products including Word, Excel, OneDrive, SharePoint, Power Point, Outlook/Exchange, Gmail, and GoogleDocs. Strong proficiency in Excel is desired.