Juneau’s next municipal attorney won’t have far to move her boxes as Emily Wright, currently serving as Juneau’s assistant attorney, is scheduled to take over her boss’ job toward the end of this month.
Wright, selected from three finalists interviewed late last month, will replace Robert Palmer who is departing Aug. 30 to take a job with an Anchorage-based law firm. In an interview with the Empire on Friday, Wright said she doesn’t expect the new job to be a large adjustment.
“I think I’m in a really unique position because I’ve been here and when Mr. Palmer was out I was helping to cover, and so I think I’m probably in a unique position,” she said. “I absolutely knew what I was getting into, probably more than most people. I will say I think that what I’ve definitely learned over the last few days is the importance of the huge scope of work that we do here in the city.”
The upcoming municipal election will likely be the most immediate large task keeping her busy, including finalizing language for election documents and then work involved with the certification process, Wright said. That will differ from areas she focused on during five years of work as an assistant attorney for the City and Borough of Juneau, including providing counsel to the Planning Commission and Juneau School District. She also was a criminal prosecutor at the beginning of her time with CBJ.
Her previous work experience includes working for the Alaska Court System as a magistrate and court administrator, and for the state as an attorney and labor relations official, according to a CBJ press release. She has a master’s degree in teaching from the University of Alaska Southeast, a juris doctor from the University of Colorado Law School, served as a law clerk for the Denver District Court after law school, and has lived in Juneau most recently since 2011.
Wright said she is scheduled to officially begin her new job Aug. 19, so there will be an overlapping transition before Palmer’s last day.
The other two finalists were Megan Costello, an attorney and owner of Foghorn Law Office in Douglas, and Rebecca Convery, associate deputy general counsel for the U.S. Army Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C. The candidates went through a two-stage screening process before the Juneau Assembly, first delivering mock presentations about a hypothetical issue and then going through conventional question-and-answer interviews.
Wright will make an initial salary of $188,000, less than the slightly more than $200,000 Palmer is making, but she said that’s to be expected as a new hire. One early task will be finding a replacement for the job she currently holds.
“We’re working this week to figure out what the next steps are,” she said. “We have an internal process so we may have people who are interested in switching from criminal to civil, which happens from time to time.”
Otherwise, Wright said, “it’s good timing right now because the bar exam was in July and the bar results come out in October, so we could get some new attorneys applying.”
Getting people to apply for the municipal attorney’s job was something of a challenge because it requires an experienced attorney who is familiar with the workings of city government — and willing to accept a salary almost certainly lower than offered in the private sector, said Dallas Hargrave, CBJ’s director of human resources and risk management, at the time the finalists were announced.
Wright said the decision to be among the applicants “was a no-brainer for me.”
“I’ve always worked in the public sector and I love it because every time I’m serving the community that I’m living in, so I wouldn’t want it any other way,” she said. “It’s not about being a lawyer, it’s not money, it’s not about whatever. It’s about serving my community and being there for the people who are my neighbors.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
