The New York State Department of Financial Services seeks to build an equitable, transparent, and resilient financial system that benefits individuals and supports business. Through engagement, data-driven regulation and policy, and operational excellence, the Department and its employees are responsible for empowering consumers and protecting them from financial harm; ensuring the health of the entities we regulate; driving economic growth in New York through responsible innovation; and preserving the stability of the global financial system.
The Department of Financial Services is seeking candidates for the position of Associate Attorney Financial Services in the Office of General Counsel. The incumbent will be required to function with a great degree of independence and be able to handle sensitive and confidential information. Duties include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Reviews staff conflict of interest forms and interns’ resumes for conflicts of interest and provides guidance to Human Resources;
- Reviews and drafts responses to requests for approval of outside activities and official activity expense payments;
- Drafts recusal memoranda and ethics waivers for staff, reviews blind trust agreements for compliance with the Financial Services Law (FSL), and assists with staff onboarding and offboarding as appropriate;
- Identifies and assists with updating internal policies, guidance documents and databases, procedure manuals and applicable laws as appropriate;
- Delivers pre-scripted PowerPoint ethics training to staff and interns that covers their duties and responsibilities under New York State’s ethics laws and regulations, and the FSL, among other things;
- Responds in a timely manner to requests from the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (Commission) for monthly training data;
- Issues annual filing reminders to financial disclosure statement (FDS) filers and follows up with delinquent FDS filers;
- Tracks and monitors Project Sunlight quarterly reporting and training and provides guidance on Section 166 reporting;
- Reviews, edits and provides guidance on responses to conflict of interest and vendor questionnaires, consultant and vendor contracts, service agreements, memoranda of understanding, and confidentiality and information sharing agreements to protect, among other things, DFS and the state and to prevent conflicts of interest;
- Reviews, investigates and drafts timely responses to FOIL Appeals, provides recommendations to the FOIL Appeal Office and, as appropriate, provides litigation assistance on Article 78 proceedings arising out of FOIL appeals;
- Supervises staff assisting with administration of the ethics function; and
- Conducts research and writing and performs other tasks and special projects as assigned.