The Office of County Counsel serves as legal counsel for the County of Orange and represents the Board of Supervisors, County officers, and County departments. The Board of Supervisors appointed Leon J. Page as the County Counsel in 2015, and he leads an office of approximately 70 attorneys and 30 support staff. The County Counsel’s mission is:
To provide the highest quality legal advice and representation to the Board of Supervisors, elected and appointed department heads, County agencies, their departments and staff, and Board-governed special districts.
The office is the County government’s law firm and cannot represent private individuals or private interests.
The office provides civil advisory and litigation services. Advisory attorneys provide legal guidance about government operations. Advisory teams cover broad practice areas such as environmental, constitutional, contract, privacy, real estate, child abuse, tax, election, transparency, and probate laws. The office has a general litigation team that defends and prosecutes civil matters on behalf of the County of Orange and its officers in both Federal and State courts, both at the trial level and on appeal. The office also has litigation teams that focus on specific areas of the law such as juvenile dependency, mental health conservatorship, and probate proceedings.
A team of administrative support staff assists the office with budgets, human resources, purchasing, facilities, records management, and paralegal and secretarial services.
The office oversees the Orange County Fraud Hotline, which is intended for County employees and members of the public to report suspected fraud, misuse of County resources by vendors, contractors, or County employees, and significant violations of County policy.
Employment opportunities are posted at www.governmentjobs.com/careers/oc. For inquiries about internships, please contact interncoordinator@coco.ocgov.com.
