Description:

The General Counsel provides legal services for the agency, serving as a member of Sunset's executive team to provide information and advice about legal issues impacting the agency. The General Counsel helps to ensure the Sunset Advisory Commission meetings are conducted in accordance with all relevant requirements, including open government laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Texas parliamentary procedure.

Unlike a traditional General Counsel role, the Sunset General Counsel assists Sunset's review teams with their evaluations of state agencies for efficiency, effectiveness, fairness, and accountability. The General Counsel does this by interpreting relevant state laws and conducting legal research and analysis to support review teams' development of their report findings and recommendations. Areas of focus include:

Becoming familiar with the statutes and rules of state agencies under Sunset review.
Identifying other applicable laws relevant to the review of a state agency (e.g., federal law or another state agency's statute).
Responding to policy analyst questions including those related to statutes, contracts, attorney general opinions, open records, administrative law processes (e.g., rulemaking, contested cases), and confidentiality agreements.

To give policy analysts a general understanding of legal topics related to state agencies, the General Counsel provides high-level staff training on topics such as:

Reading state statutes and rules.
The legislative process.
State statutes including the Administrative Procedure Act, Open Meetings Act, and Public Information Act.
Open records decisions and letter rulings.
Attorney general opinions.

The General Counsel serves as a liaison to the Texas Legislative Council for bill drafting and analyses, and to other legislative oversight agencies as needed.

We are a fun, hard-working team of intellectually curious people who believe in our mission to improve government operations. The Sunset Commission is an equal opportunity employer.

Required Qualifications:
Education and Licensure:
Juris Doctor degree and active State of Texas Bar license in good standing.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Knowledge of state constitution, statutes, and rules of statutory construction.
Knowledge of House and Senate rules and legislative drafting principles.
Knowledge of Texas public information and open meetings laws and requirements.
Knowledge of the Texas Administrative Procedure Act, including the state agency rulemaking and contested case processes.
Knowledge of human resources law as it pertains to a Texas state agency.
Skill to conduct reliable legal research.
Skill to produce requests for attorney general opinions, responses to public information requests, and any legal materials necessary to help represent Sunset in litigation.
Ability to manage time to handle competing work priorities.
Ability to maintain confidentiality of sensitive agency matters.