Closing Date: 11th November, 2026
Description:
General Description of Duties:This is an executive management position on the Sheriff's Office Executive Command Staff and reports directly to the Sheriff. The position is the general counsel, legal and constitutional policing advisor for the Leon County Sheriff's Office and the Sheriff. The incumbent is responsible for the direction, administration, development, review, coordination, execution, filing, and tracking of all legal functions of the Sheriff's Office including disciplinary actions, career service boards, pre-determination conferences, contracts, requests for proposals, memoranda of agreement/understanding, public records, civil litigation, coordination of outside legal counsel representation, and providing legal review and support to the Office of Inspector in internal investigations and policy development. While the General Counsel reports directly to the Sheriff, the position serves as legal counsel to the Leon County Sheriff's Office and the Sheriff in the Sheriff's official capacity, providing agency wide legal advice, guidance, and support to command staff, supervisors, and personnel concerning their official duties and agency business.
The incumbent promotes the Sheriff's Office vision and mission and adheres to the agency's core values of honesty and integrity, accountability, teamwork, trust, respect, and commitment to excellence. To be successful in this position, the employee must demonstrate competency in local, state, and federal statutes and ordinances and LCSO written directives, driving, conflict resolution, general communication skills (both written and oral), inter-personal skills, problem solving, team building skills, strategic planning and transformational leadership.
The incumbent advises the Sheriff, executive staff and command staff on emerging legal issues, operational practices, and risk mitigation strategies. The position supports the development and implementation of lawful, effective, and accountable policies and practices consistent with applicable law and the Sheriff's directives. The incumbent is expected to exercise sound legal judgment, maintain professional and ethical standards, protect confidential and privileged information, and promote the Office's mission and core values.
Essential Duties:
- Knowledge of applicable laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations and the application of such to the performance of the job.
- Supervise agency paralegal.
- Ability to professionally represent the agency by adhering to the ethical standards of the agency.
- Assume an effective leadership role and be available on a flexible schedule to ensure appropriate coverage for a 24-hour operation.
- Serve as the legal representative of the Sheriff during executive, judicial, Citizens Advisory Council, and other meetings or events.
- Prepare letters of intent to terminate, disciplinary notices, required responses, correspondence, procedural notifications, and/or other documents or activities.
- Coordinate, facilitate, schedule, and provide notification and documentation associated with predetermination conferences, Career Service boards, and employee grievances including but not limited to preparation and coordination of required notices, responses, and/or related correspondence and facilitation of all related meetings and conferences.
- Provide professional oral testimony during federal and state criminal trials, hearings, grand juries, and other judicial proceedings as the representative for the Sheriff.
- Assist the Office of Inspector General in developing, writing, implementing, and reviewing agency written directives to affect the efficient and effective operation of the Leon County Sheriff's Office.
- Provide transformational leadership to operations through team building, delegation, innovation, performance management, the provision of staff training, and policy enforcement.
- Formulate, implement, and support strategic planning initiatives and champion the Sheriff's Office mission, vision, values, and strategic plans.
- Develop, recommend, and successfully manage the annual budget of the Sheriff's Office as it pertains to the position's designated area.
- Draft, review, and interpret contracts, negotiate and handle disputes in coordination with the Purchasing and Contracts Section for the purchase of goods and services, ensuring compliance with federal, state and local statutes, rules, and/or ordinances, applicable case law, and agency written directives.
- Provide legal advice to Detention on inmate grievances, the Inmate Welfare Committee and Medical Advisory Committee, etc.
- Review Requests for Proposal (RFP) prior to advertisement to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local statutes, rules, and/or ordinances, applicable case law, and agency written directives.
- Provide legal assistance to agency personnel on Public Records requests by providing interpretation of applicable federal, state, and local statutes, rules, and/or ordinances, applicable case law, and agency written directives.
- Receive and process Notices of Intent to Sue received in accordance with Florida statutes. Obtain and review all applicable reports and make initial determination of validity of claim. Open claims with liability carrier and provide all applicable records to liability carrier. Assist liability carrier as required.
- Receive and process lawsuit summonses.
- For cases covered by liability carrier, liaison with liability carrier and outside counsel appointed to represent the Sheriff and agency members. Attend depositions, mediations, and other scheduled proceedings on behalf of the Sheriff. Negotiate and authorize mediation settlements on behalf of the Sheriff as directed by the Sheriff. For cases not covered by liability carrier, act as counsel of record and handle the litigation or hire and direct outside counsel as appropriate.
- Receive, review, and respond to court orders and subpoenas as appropriate. Provide legal assistance to agency personnel in interpreting and complying with court orders and subpoenas.
- Assist the Office of Inspector General in developing, writing, implementing, and reviewing written directives to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local statutes, rules, and/or ordinances, applicable case law, and agency written directives. Ensure applicable civil liability concerns are evaluated and addressed.
- Review civil forfeitures for compliance with applicable federal and state statutes and case law. If necessary, liaison with outside counsel who may handle the cases in court.
- Provide legal assistance to agency personnel as required.
- Review affidavits for arrest and search warrants for legal sufficiency in accordance with applicable federal and state statutes, case law, and agency policies.
- Draft, amend, review, track, and update inter-agency agreements such as Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) and task force agreements to reduce agency risk and ensure compliance with federal, state, and local statutes, rules, and/or ordinances, and applicable case law and agency written directives.
- Ability to perform all functions of the job classification without posing a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals in the workplace.
- Ability to perform other duties as assigned or as necessary for the effective and efficient operations of the agency.
- Evaluate in conjunction with Risk Management insurance needs of the agency. Analyze insurance programs for adequacy of coverage by reviewing all policies, certificates, contracts, and programs.
- Provide legal advice to assist Member Relations in the development of programs to reduce loss, control risk and exposure, and educate and train employees on safety issues.
- Recommend and implement best methods for dealing with risks through elimination, equipment, design, training, reduction, retention, or transfer.
- In conjunction with Risk Management, review and oversee property, casualty, and liability claims led with agency liability carriers.
- Liaison with worker's compensation claims counsel and coverage administrator as required.
- Assist Member Relations personnel with employment law matters related to workers compensation claims, Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), hiring practices, background investigations, employment eligibility, wage garnishments, and/or other related personnel related matters.
- Responsible for use-of-force review, legal-sufficiency review, critical-incident response, response to incident scenes to provide in-person legal assistance to executive staff, command staff and operational commander, and/or other legal or administrative responsibilities associated with critical incidents.
- Review requests for Risk Protection Orders ("RPO") and provide legal advice to Sheriff, as required. If legally sufficient and approved by the Sheriff, file RPO with Court and represent the Sheriff in any court proceedings.
- Conduct training for agency personnel on legal topics as required for the agency in areas such as use of force, search and seizure, civil liability, labor and employment law, sexual harassment ethics, and written directive guidance.
- Monitor new statutes, regulations, appellate decisions, Attorney General opinions, and legal bulletins and provide agency training as needed.
- Prepare legal impact analysis and agency legal bulletins.
- Participate in the Florida Sheriff's Association Legal Committee.
- Consult with the Florida Sheriffs Association's (FSA) legal counsel on relevant legal requirements, emerging issues in law enforcement, risk-m
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