Legal Project Manager

The Office of Labor Relations (OLR) represents the Mayor in the conduct of all labor relations between the City of New York and labor unions representing employees of the City. The Commissioner serves on behalf of the Mayor as the City’s liaison with both labor and management in the private sector. The office is authorized by Executive Order 38 (February 7, 1967), amended by Executive Order 13 (July 24, 1990).

Additionally, OLR administers the Health Benefits Program, Management Benefits Fund, Employee Assistance Program, Work Well NYC, Medicare Part B Reimbursement and Pre-Tax Benefits & Citywide Programs including the Deferred Compensation Plan and NYCE IRA. In addition to negotiating collective bargaining agreements, OLR serves as a resource to agencies with regard to workforce labor issues and works with the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) to pursue innovations in a variety of areas, particularly regarding City health insurance programs. The staff at OLR assist their fellow agencies in handling personnel and payroll issues, conducting labor-management meetings, representing the City at representation hearings, and handling all employee grievances and arbitration matters while also negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the City's 149 bargaining units.

Office of the General Counsel (OGC): Under the supervision of the General Counsel, OGC serves as the agency’s legal counsel, providing legal support and advice agency-wide on the wide range of issues that arise at the agency given the breadth of its portfolio. In addition to advising on collective bargaining and labor relations, the legal team attorneys represent the city before the Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB) in administrative proceedings, including arbitrations, and serve as neutrals during Step III grievance proceedings. The legal team is also responsible for contracts administration across the various procurements held by OLR’s administered programs. Further, OGC is responsible for ensuring compliance with the various regulatory requirements that set the legal framework for the employee benefits programs that serve the city’s approximately 300,000 employees and city retirees and their dependents. Lastly, the legal team liaises with the Law Department on litigation, discovery, and is responsible for FOIL, privacy, and the other day-to-day legal matters that arise for an agency’s in-house counsel team.


Job Summary:

OGC seeks a Legal Project Manager to support the work of the General Counsel agency wide. Reporting to the General Counsel and working closely with OGC leadership and a team of approximately 15 legal and procurement professionals, the Legal Project Manager will provide policy, legal, and administrative support across the team’s three units. The Legal Project Manager will also be responsible for processing service of legal documents, liaising with other divisions and city agencies to relay any such legal papers in a timely fashion. Further, the Legal Project Manager will carry a caseload of Step III grievances working processing intake and ensuring the sufficiency of Step III complaints received from other agencies prior to calendaring them for resolution.

With respect to projects taken on by the General Counsel’s team, the Legal Project Manager will assist with developing a timeline and budget for any such projects that is consistent with agency priorities and limitations. Further, they will ensure that the project stays on task by coordinating relevant meetings among the stakeholders (internal and external), setting agendas, sending out reminders, record and notes keeping in connection with any project meetings, and conducting policy-based research including literature reviews and summarizing available information for decisionmakers as appropriate.

The successful candidate must be very organized, detail-oriented, flexible, and have the ability to work well with a variety of personalities and entities. Further, they must be solutions oriented, eager to learn, and a problem solver who can work both collaboratively and independently without close supervision to ensure they stay on task and deadlines are met. Patience, sound judgment, and a good sense of humor to help ensure a collegial environment are also necessary for successful integration to OGC’s small team.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

- Conducting intake of arbitration, improper practice, impasse, representation, and other cases litigated before the Office of Collective Bargaining and other administrative tribunals (receiving and processing complaints that come in from unions and city employees across agencies after efforts to resolve the grievances at the lower levels have been exhausted, and receiving and processing complaints filed under the New York City Collective Bargaining Law);
- Conducting sufficiency reviews of Step III grievances, evaluating the complaints received are complete and contain enough supporting documentation and facts to comply with OLR’s requirements before calendaring;
- Providing legal assistance/support to the attorneys as assigned, including filing legal documents, preparing simple discovery and FOIL responses, and accessing and pulling court dockets and legal papers;
- Identifying and utilizing legal case management software and other tech tools to organize and maintain legal and other documents in accordance with NYC and other records retention policies;
- Researching policy and operations-based projects (e.g., platforms used at other agencies to handle sensitive documents and compliance), including lit reviews, presentations, outreach to other agencies and jurisdictions to identify models and best practices that could assist OLR in developing their own systems and procedures;
- Managing infrastructure and policy projects as assigned by General Counsel (e.g., keeping timelines and deadlines, sending out reminders to relevant stakeholders (both internal and external), providing updates and alerts to ensure projects continue to move forward as appropriate);
- Handling sensitive and confidential materials with professionalism and discretion;
- Preparing high level briefing materials;
- Attending meetings with the General Counsel and as appropriate, other members of the OGC leadership team, taking notes/minutes, summarizing main takeaways and action steps, and serving as a sounding board during internal follow-up conversations;
- Organizing materials, evidentiary exhibits, and various legal documents for presentation to OCB during arbitration proceedings;
- Providing support to OGC leadership in formatting and preparing presentations for both legal team and OLR legal staff training, including handouts, PowerPoint presentations, and setting up conference rooms for hybrid use;
- Communicating regular updates on status of cases to the relevant internal stakeholders, including the Commissioner, First Deputy Commissioner, and Contract Negotiators;
- Providing administrative support by way of preparing and disseminating information specific to the legal team’s duties and training to new team members and ensuring the legal team has supplies as needed;
- Managing the GC’s calendar and coordination of multi-party meetings and agendas for legal team leadership with internal and external stakeholders; and
- Other duties as needed.

COMMUNITY COORDINATOR - 56058

Qualifications

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties described above; or
2. High school graduation or equivalent and six years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties as described above; or
3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least one year of experience as described in "1" above.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.