Careers

Primary Work Location: – Riverside, Irvine, or Los Angeles, CA

Office Hours: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm, varies based on workload

Division/Department: Administration

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Summary of Position

The Director of Attorney Development plays a critical leadership role in driving the professional growth, engagement, and long-term success of our attorneys and professional staff. This position is responsible for developing and implementing firmwide training programs, building clear career paths, overseeing workload allocation, and ensuring quality standards in professional development. The Director will also lead training on how attorneys represent the firm externally, especially at industry conferences and events. In addition, this role will partner closely with Human Resources (HR) on attorney recruiting strategies to ensure alignment with the firm’s development goals, core values, and culture.

This is a highly visible, strategic role ideal for a collaborative, forward-thinking leader committed to fostering a high-performance, high-retention culture within a dynamic law firm focused largely on servicing public entities.

Career Pathing & Talent Development

• Design and implement structured career development frameworks for attorneys.
• Partner with Section Chairs and HR to define promotion criteria, development tracks, and succession planning.
• Build out and oversee formal mentorship program to support retention and advancement.

Training Program Design & Delivery

• Develop a comprehensive learning curriculum, including legal and technical skills, leadership, communication, and business development.
• Deliver or coordinate firmwide and practice-specific training programs.
• Leverage technology platforms to create scalable, accessible learning experiences.

Quality Assurance

• Establish standards for training quality, participation, and outcomes.
• Monitor engagement and feedback to assess program effectiveness and continuously refine offerings.
• Create reporting tools to track learning impact and career progression.

Workload Allocation & Resource Optimization

• Collaborate with Section Chairs to ensure equitable distribution of assignments.
• Monitor utilization and actual capacity to identify imbalances and development opportunities.
• Recommend strategies to align workloads with growth and retention goals.

External Representation Training

• Lead or oversee training initiatives to prepare attorneys to represent the firm at industry events, conferences, and on panels.
• Partner with Marketing and Business Development to align messaging and branding.
• Coach attorneys on personal presence, firm positioning, and public speaking.

Attorney Recruiting Partnership

• Collaborate with HR to design and execute lateral and entry-level attorney recruitment strategies.
• Ensure recruiting processes align with development goals, diversity objectives, and firm core values.
• Participate in candidate evaluation and onboarding processes to support long-term integration and retention.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Cover a wide array of practice areas including, but not limited to, Cannabis, Code Enforcement, Contracts & Public Works, Economic Development, Education, Elections, Energy & Utilities, Environment & Natural Resources, Ethics & Open Government, Franchises, Housing, Labor & Employment, Land Use & Zoning, Litigation, Mining, Mobile home Parks & Rent Control, Property Acquisition & Takings, Public Agency Organization, Public Finance, Public Safety, Real Estate, Risk Management & Torts, Telecommunications, Toxics & Hazardous Waste and Water 
• Research and analyze the law on complex issues and writing briefs for submission to a Supervising Attorney(s)
• Analyze and summarize complicated legal documents, including contracts, and suggesting alterations to those documents
• Perform discovery of various electronically stored data and hard copies of information in preparation for litigation
• Perform due diligence in legal matters concerning contracts and agreements 
• Analyze probable outcomes of cases, using knowledge of legal precedents to reveal potential legal liabilities for our clients
• Advise clients concerning business transactions, claim liability, advisability of prosecuting or defending lawsuits, or legal rights and obligations
• Represent clients in court or before government agencies
• Evaluate findings and develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases
• Gather evidence to formulate defense or to initiate legal actions, by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case
• Search for and examine public and other legal records to write opinions or identify complexities 
• Confer with colleagues with specialties in appropriate areas of legal issue to establish and verify bases for legal proceedings
• Maintain communication with a client concerning representation as needed under the discretion of the Supervising Attorney(s)
• Perform administrative and management functions related to the practice of law
• Complete special projects as assigned
• Perform related duties as assigned
• Supervise Legal Secretaries and Paralegals as needed
• Maintain compliance with all company policies and procedures