Closing Date: 24th July, 2024

Description:

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City's yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency's five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
  • To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
  • Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
  • Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women's health
  • Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism's impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

Duties Will Include but Not Be Limited To:
  • Receive training and practical experience in DOHMH's legal work.
  • Research complex legal issues and draft motions, pleadings, brief, subpoenas, memoranda, and other important documents and opinions of the NYC Health Department.
  • Assist the Director of ELU and Deputy Director of ELU in all phases of the disciplinary process including investigations, preparation of disciplinary charges and prosecution from informal conference through appeal process, including OATH and Civil Service Commission.
  • Research and analyze conflicts of interest law questions and draft waiver requests.
  • Perform other duties as requested by the General Counsel and/or Deputy General Counsel.

Minimum Qualifications:
Graduation from an accredited United States law school as defined in the Rules of the New York Court of Appeals (Sections 520.3 or 520.5) or admission to the New York State Bar.

Preferred Skills:
Excellent written and verbal communication skills Great attention to detail Knowledge of Employment Law, including New York Civil Service Law, New York Conflicts of Interest Law and relevant disciplinary rules affecting New York City employees Knowledge of administrative law Litigation experience and, Strong organizational skills.