General Counsel

1.

30%  1. As General Counsel for the Agency:

• Directs, plans and oversees all legal work on complex issues advising Department staff on legal matters pertaining to policy, operations of the agency, contracts, grants, litigation personnel, labor, budget, legislation, etc.
• As a policy-making administrator and principal administrator, formulates technical and legal policy on a variety of difficult and complex legal questions, laws, rules, policies and procedures as they pertain to various specialized legal, legislative and administrative areas of the Department.
• Provides legal counsel and guidance on various matters and offers consultation and develops effective and practical solutions to a wide variety of difficult and complex legal questions and problems.
• Provides legal counsel on highly confidential and sensitive issues serving in the best interest of the Agency.
• Advises the Secretary and senior staff and confers with counsel to the Governor on complex legal interpretation as necessary.
• Formulate and implement agency-wide policy for all grant agreements, contracts, intergovernmental agreements, confidentiality agreements, etc.

20%  2. Advises the Secretary:

• On complex legal and confidential matters as they relate to the operations of the agency and assists in interpreting, for the Secretary, difficult problems with respect to the impact of new legislation and administrative rulemaking.
• Advises the Secretary in areas of labor law, personal law, statutes, etc.

15% 3. Serves as a spokesperson for the Secretary possessing significant independent authority acting on behalf of the Secretary which binds the Department to specific courses of action relative to matters of legal policy, procedures and guideline development, interpretation, implementation including proposing and issuing new or revised interpretation and resolution to legal issues:

• Confers with attorneys from other State agencies, including, but not limited to, the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, the US Department of Education, US Department of Health and Human Services, and other federal agencies, from office of the county state’s attorneys, and from private practice on complex legal matters and difficult problems of statutory interpretation with regard function of the Agency.

15% 4. Serves as full line supervisor:

• Assigns and reviews work.
• Provides guidance and training to assigned staff.
• Counsels staff regarding work performance.
• Reassigns staff to meet day-to-day operating needs.
• Establishes annual goals and objectives.
• Approves/disapproves time off requests.
• Adjusts first level grievances.
• Effectively recommends and imposes discipline, up to and including discharge.
• Prepares and signs performance evaluations.
• Determines staff needs.

10% 5. Drafts proposed bills, amendments, resolutions, procedures, rules and    regulations in relation to the Department:

• Monitors proposed related legislation and rules and advises the Secretary of its potential impact.
• Confers with legislators, legislative staff, Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, citizens, and other agency staff with regard to the impact of proposed legislation and rules and makes known the position of the Department with respect to impact.

5% 6. Responsible for the agency’s Freedom of Information (FOIA) responses:

• Receives and responds to oral inquiries and written correspondence from the public, other agencies, attorneys and the press and interprets for them complex legal issues that relate to the Department’s functions, decisions and activities.

5% 7. Performs other duties for the Secretary as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.