We welcome qualified applicants of all backgrounds and believe a diverse team leads to the best outcomes. We invite you to explore our website to learn more about our Office and team members, our work, and our many practice areas.
Current openings
Civil Rights, Tort, and Employment Litigation Team
We are seeking an experienced employment litigator for our Civil Rights, Tort, and Employment Litigation Team. This Team defends the County in lawsuits filed against not only the County, but also its officials, and/or its employees. In addition to employment cases, the Team’s docket includes a wide variety of other subject matter areas, including tort, civil rights, medical malpractice, and dangerous condition of public property actions to name a few. Our litigators handle all phases of litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts. Additionally, our litigators represent all County departments and have developed expertise in the work of each department to provide advice and training on risk management issues to improve policies, practices, and to minimize legal exposure to the County. We are interested in candidates who would like to work in a collaborative and dynamic public-sector litigation practice, have experience in employment litigation, and five (5) or more years of litigation practice. Experience in the other specific types of cases described above is desirable, but not required.
Health and Hospitals Team
We are seeking an attorney to join our Health and Hospitals Team, which provides legal advice to the County’s health care delivery system. This Team counsels Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC), a 731-bed acute care hospital and Level 1 trauma center and 50-bed psychiatric hospital; O’Connor Hospital, a 358-bed acute care hospital; Saint Louise Regional Hospital, a 95-bed acute care hospital; and a network of health centers and urgent care clinics across Santa Clara County. Attorneys also serve as legal counsel to the Behavioral Health Services Department; the Public Health Department; the Custody Health Services Department; the Emergency Medical Services Agency; and Valley Health Plan, the County’s Knox Keene-licensed, publicly-sponsored health plan.
The ideal candidate will have a range of experience furnishing general advice and counsel to large health care providers and/or plans. Desirable skillsets include, but are not limited to, health care contracting; regulatory compliance, including with regard to state and federal claims, billing, consent and data privacy, finance and cost reporting, pharmacy, and/or Federally Qualified Health Center requirements; experience advising hospital and clinic quality and risk departments, including on responses to federal and state survey activities; and payor-side managed care experience, including with complex delegation agreements and provider dispute/grievance resolution. Familiarity with California’s health care regulatory landscape, including requirements set forth by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), and the Department of Healthcare Access and Information (HCAI), would be an asset.
Human Services Team
We are seeking an attorney for assignment on the Office's Human Services Team. The Human Services Team provides legal advice to the County’s human services departments that provide benefits and supportive services, including the Office of Supportive Housing and Social Services Agency (SSA). The Office of Supportive Housing’s mission is to end and prevent homelessness by increasing access to housing and related supportive services. SSA is composed of multiple departments that administer critical public benefit programs: the Department of Aging and Adult Services which administers the Senior Nutrition Program and In-Home Supportive Services; the Department of Employment and Benefit Services which administers Medi-Cal, CalFresh, CalWORKS, and General Assistance Programs; and the Department of Family and Children’s Services that protects children from abuse and neglect and supports families in need.
Labor and Employment Team
We are seeking an attorney to assist our Office in advising County departments regarding a wide array of labor and employment matters, including hiring, training, and disciplining employees; reasonably accommodating employees and complying with employee-leave laws and policies; negotiating and finalizing labor contracts; drafting personnel policies; and complying with the County’s Merit System Rules and state and federal labor, employment, and equal opportunity laws. Team attorneys also represent the County before the Santa Clara County Personnel Board, arbitrators, the Public Employment Relations Board, and other state and federal administrative agencies. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience with labor union negotiations, collective bargaining, and other facets of California labor law.
Child and Family Protection Team
We are seeking an attorney to join our Child and Family Protection Team, which provides legal advice and in-court representation to the County of Santa Clara’s Department of Family and Children's Services (DFCS) in juvenile dependency matters, which is a part of the broader Social Services Agency. This attorney will assist our Office in representing and advising DFCS in juvenile dependency proceedings. Our court-facing practice engages attorneys in regularly handling uncontested juvenile court hearings, bench trials, and appellate litigation. This Team also counsels DFCS in a wide range of child welfare and juvenile dependency related issues, including, but not limited to, child welfare emergency response and dependency investigations, juvenile dependency court case requirements, compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act, Child Abuse Central Index grievances, and juvenile case record confidentiality questions. This Team supports the Department by providing legal advice, and also provides trainings to DFCS staff for these areas and related ones, such as paternity, court report writing, and educational rights. An ideal candidate will have experience appearing in court and in the following areas: juvenile dependency law and litigation, including appellate matters; advising social workers and DFCS-type representatives regarding a variety of child welfare-related issues, including dependency investigations, child abuse hotline issues, emergency response investigations, administrative grievance hearings or similar issues; and performing ancillary legal duties as assigned.
Adult and Elder Protection Team
We are seeking an experienced attorney, with probate, general advice, and litigation experience preferred, for our Adult and Elder Protection Team. This attorney will assist our Office in representing the Public Guardian of the County of Santa Clara in both probate and mental health conservatorship proceedings. Our court-facing practice engages attorneys in routinely handling a variety of contested hearings, including both jury and bench trials, and appellate litigation. Team attorneys serve as in-house counsel for the Public Guardian on conservatorship and trust administration for several hundred pending cases on a variety of issues from real property sales to accountings, medical decision-making, landlord/tenant disputes, and taxes. And they represent the Public Administrator of the County of Santa Clara in probate matters such as assisting and advising on the administration of existing decedent estates, including handling petitions for appointment, tax disputes, court-confirmed sales of real property, will contests, and petitions for final distributions. We are particularly interested in candidates with a demonstrated interest in public service and collaboration that engages and supports the community.
