JOB TITLE: General Counsel AGENCY: Westlands Water District LOCATION: Fresno, CA FILING DEADLINE: Open until Filled SALARY RANGE: $150,000 - $498,000 Annually
The Position Under direction of the Board of Directors, in coordination with the General Manager, the General Counsel performs a broad range of staff legal work, represents the District on legal matters before a variety of governmental agencies and tribunals, performs a wide variety of legal research, and provides senior management with effective legal advice or opinions and their implementation, research, studying, interpreting, and applying laws and regulations, and court decisions. Further, the General Counsel provides expert legal advice in the specialized area of water law, which may be exceptionally difficult and sensitive. For a full description of specific duties, visit the District’s General Counsel class description on the District’s website here.
Duties and Responsibilities The core responsibilities of the General Counsel are to guarantee the District is working in compliance with the law in every way. The incumbent will handle all legal actions to prevent the District’s profile and its employee’s reputation from the risk of exposure to the public as defined below:
Key Characteristics The District is seeking candidates with a wide range of experience in water-related legal matters and who are well-versed in the Brown Act. The incumbent will coordinate and manage litigation with outside counsel, develop and manage departmental budgets, and provide general in-house counsel to staff, including drafting and reviewing contracts, reviewing grant contract compliance, and other district matters. The selected candidate would preferably be based in either the Fresno or Sacramento areas and will possess the following:
Knowledge of:
Skills and Abilities to:
The Ideal Candidate The ideal candidate is an experienced attorney, admitted to practice in the State of California and in good standing with the State Bar, who demonstrates the following further professional and personal characteristics:
The District Formed in 1952, Westlands Water District is an agricultural water district located in the San Joaquin Valley of California and is headquartered in Fresno. Westlands first received a water supply from the Central Valley Project in the late 1960s and has since served the farmers and rural communities on the west side of Fresno and Kings counties.
Westlands is among the few, if not the only, agricultural water agencies in the United States that distributes water through an entirely enclosed system. The District’s approximately 1,100 miles of pipe and 3,000 water meters deliver and measure every drop of water that is transported through the District and minimizes water losses caused by seepage and evaporation. Westlands continually invests in this sophisticated system to ensure the most efficient distribution of water. To learn more about the District’s sustainability efforts, click here.
For more details about this opportunity, please visit the job brochure at: https://koffassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Westlands-Water-District-Final-Brochure-v5.pdf.
Interested candidates must apply online to https://koffassociates.com/wwd-general-counsel/. Required are a comprehensive resume, compelling cover letter (two-page maximum), and six references (2 supervisors, two direct reports and two colleagues—references will be contacted only after the interview process).
For questions and inquiries, please contact:
Pete Smith Senior Recruiter 510.342.3233 peter_smith1@ajg.com www.koffassociates.com