Senior Counsel

Senior Counsel

Legislative Branch

Library of Congress

Summary

This position is located in the Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Librarian.

Duties

The mission of the Library of Congress is to engage, inspire, and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity. Making the Library’s unparallelled collections available through in-person research, exhibits, publications, programs, social media, and the Library website is fundamental to this mission and to the vision that all Americans are connected to the Library. Working in the Office of the General Counsel of the Library of Congress, the Senior Counsel provides expert legal advice and assistance to the General Counsel, the Deputy General Counsel, the Associate General Counsels, and other senior officials at the Library regarding access to and use of Library collections and other matters as assigned.

The Senior Counsel applies a comprehensive knowledge of administrative law and a range of specialized areas of the law including the following: copyright, licensing, and permissions; gifts and contracts; First Amendment; social media; minors; privacy and publicity; art and entertainment; cultural patrimony; Federal records; and other laws regarding access to and use of library and museum collections.

As an expert, the Senior Counsel must be able to work without immediate supervision on the most complex and important legal questions that often involve issues of first impression, with very wide latitude for independent judgment and decision-making. The Senior Counsel must be able to collaborate with agency leadership, program officials, and experts to develop and refine Library policies and procedures to ensure that they are effective, efficient, and consistent with law.

Examples of duties performed may include, but are not limited to: conducting extensive legal research on highly intricate and exceedingly complex and novel questions of law and policy; performing analyses involving the interpretation and application of complex laws and regulations, or court rulings affecting the administration of the various applicable laws and regulations; advising Library leadership regarding the development, interpretation and implementation of sensitive public policies with long-range agency, national or international significance; serving as liaison with the U.S. Copyright Office regarding rulemaking and litigation; preparing complex proposals, responses to policy inquiries, letters, legal memoranda, litigation materials, testimony, regulations, procedures, and guidance for the public; representing the Library in discussions, negotiations, and consultations with outside counsel, other government agencies, and other external parties, including on high profile matters; developing a network of key individuals and organizations and communicates with those individuals and entities to share and receive information to further the Library's goals; and, serving as a principal authority on litigation matters related their areas of expertise.