Overview

Position Overview
The Illinois Department of Public Health is seeking a highly motivated individual to serve as Assistant General Counsel, providing legal advice, analysis, and response for the Department’s Office of Health Care Regulation, and handling of administrative litigation and regulatory matters. Ideal candidate will have strong communication skills and the ability to prioritize and handle multiple projects simultaneously. This candidate will also have excellent communication skills with program and legal colleagues.

Essential Functions

  • Provides legal advice, counsel and representation to Department programs, with an emphasis to the Offices of Health Care Regulation and Human Resources, within the Department.
  • Participate with other members of the legal staff, the Division of Governmental Affairs, and program personnel in the review of bills which have public health significance.
  • Provides legal and technical support to Ethics Officer reviewing various ethics-related matters and other investigative referrals made to the Office of the Executive Inspector General (OEIG), while maintain and updating spreadsheets and the docketing system containing internal ethical inquiries from within the agency and external referrals to the OEIG.
  • Serves as Department attorney in administrative hearings, including the preparation of notices, motions, complaints, orders and similar legal documents and in the presentation of oral and written evidence at such administrative hearings.
  • Regularly attends and participates in Department labor relations internal meetings and negotiations with, and on behalf of, management personnel.
  • Confers with the Attorney General’s staff or State’s Attorneys to collaborate upon the preparation of written evidence, the availability of witnesses, the preparation or defense of litigation in which the Department is a party.
  • Performs related duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.

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About Illinois Department Public Health

In Illinois, if you have eaten at a restaurant ... required hospital or nursing home care ... vacationed at a campground or swam at a public beach or pool ... drank a glass of milk ... got married or divorced ... had a baby, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has touched your life in some important way.

Assuring the quality of our food, setting the standards for hospital and nursing home care, checking the safety of recreation areas, overseeing the inspection of milk producing farms and processing plants, maintaining the state's vital records and screening newborns for genetic diseases are just some of the duties of IDPH.

In fact, IDPH has 200 different programs that benefit each state resident and visitor, although its daily activities of maintaining the public's health are rarely noticed unless a breakdown in the system occurs. With the assistance of local public health agencies, these essential programs and services make up Illinois' public health system, a system that forms a frontline defense against disease through preventive measures and education. Public health has provided the foundation for remarkable gains in saving lives and reducing suffering. Today, life expectancy is 80 years for women and 74 years for men compared with fewer than 50 years at the at the beginning of the 20th century.

In the past, IDPH directed state efforts to control smallpox, cholera and typhoid, virtually eliminated polio, reduced dental decay through fluoridation of community water supplies, and corrected sanitary conditions that threatened water and food supplies.

Today, IDPH has programs to deal with persistent problems that require continued vigilance – infectious diseases, such as AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and meningococcal disease; foodborne and communicable diseases, such as E. coli 0157: H7, monkeypox, salmonella and West Nile virus; vaccine preventable diseases; lead poisoning; lack of health care in rural areas; health disparities among racial groups, breast, cervical and prostate cancer; Alzheimer's disease; and other health threats -- sexually transmitted diseases, tobacco use, violence, and other conditions associated with high-risk behaviors. In addition, IDPH has been charged with handling the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of bioterrorism.

IDPH, which is one of the state's oldest agencies, was first organized in 1877 with a staff of three and a two-year budget of $5,000. IDPH, now has an annual budget of $2.9 billion in state and federal funds, headquarters in Springfield and Chicago, seven regional offices located around the state, three laboratories, and 1,200 employees.

IDPH is organized into 12 offices, each of which addresses a distinct area of public health. Each office operates and supports numerous ongoing programs and is prepared to respond to extraordinary situations as they arise.