Legal Counsel, Water Rights

Job Description

Job Title: Legal Counsel, Water Rights
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Job Description:
The Legal Counsel will serve as a key advisor to the State Engineer and the Executive Team, providing expert legal guidance on water right issues, statutory policies, and administrative rules. This position ensures the Division of Water Rights operates within the legal frameworks governing water right management, advocates for Utah's water interests, and collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to address complex legal matters. The Legal Counsel will play a critical role in developing and executing strategies that advance the Division’s mission and goals.

Why You Should Join Our Team:
Water is an integral part of life in Utah. Water management is a critical challenge which will require innovation, expertise, and stakeholder engagement. This position will play an important role in this endeavor. As a member of our team you will have the opportunity to help people understand water rights, work in a challenging profession that has a meaningful impact on every aspect of life in the arid West, and shape the future of the state's most valuable resource.

The Agency:
If you would like to read more information about working for the Department of Natural Resources in Water Rights please click here.

Responsibilities

• Serve as part of the Division’s Executive Team with the State Engineer and two deputies.
• Actively identify, draft, and advise the State Engineer on needed statutory policy updates and administrative rules.
• Serve as the alternate to the State Engineer on the Western States Water Council, serving on the legal committee.
• Serve as the division lead on federal reserve water right settlements.
• Advise the State Engineer on river compact issues including the Colorado River and Bear River.
• Serve as the division representative responsible for interfacing with the Attorney General’s office on de novo reviews and other actions before the courts. As an in-house legal counsel, the candidate will not represent the State Engineer, but will coordinate with the Attorney General’s office.
• Working with the Attorney General’s office, the candidate identifies and determines the scope of discovery needed for legal cases, including collecting documents, depositions, and other forms of evidence.
• As a member of the division’s staff, the candidate will actively participate in litigation strategy sessions, assisting in decision-making processes that determine the most effective legal arguments, evidence, and tactics for court cases involving the State Engineer's office.
• Provides advice on and helps draft Orders of the State Engineer.
• Ensures all research is thorough and relevant, enabling the State Engineer to make informed legal arguments and decisions.
• Facilitates informed decision-making by interpreting existing laws, regulations, and policies.
• On behalf of the State Engineer, the candidate leads other legally complex issues involving the coordination with other state and federal agencies such as: water resources on public lands, water related mineral leasing, interstate and intersovereign water right issues, and federal water resource coordination.
• Lead other efforts as assigned by the State Engineer.
• Mentor engineers within the Division and attorneys within the Attorney General’s office in water law, policy, and case precedent to help them grow within the unique area of western water law.
• Review with the division’s records officer all GRAMA requests.
• Supervise the division’s Communications Program Manager .

Qualifications

• The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
• The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
• The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
• The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
• Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
• Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
• Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
• Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
• Teaching others how to do something.
• Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
• Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
• Managing one's own time and the time of others.
• Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
• Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.

Supplemental Information

• Must have a Juris Doctorate and have been admitted to the Utah bar.