Gov. Code, § 41805 · Chapter 7. City Attorney
Gov. Code, § 41805
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A city attorney who does not, in fact, exercise prosecutorial responsibilities on behalf of the city or cities by which he or she is employed shall not be precluded from defending or assisting in the defense of, or acting as counsel for, any person accused of any crime except for violation of any ordinance of the city or cities by which he or she is employed, provided that:
(1) The city or cities by which the city attorney is employed expressly relieve the city attorney of any and all prosecutorial responsibilities on its or their behalf; and
(2) The accused has been informed of and expressly waives any rights created as a result of any potential conflict created by his or her attorney’s position as a city attorney.
(b) Where the above provisions are met, a partner or associate of a city attorney shall not be prevented from defending or assisting in the defense of, or acting as counsel for, any person accused of any crime except for violations of any ordinance of the city or cities by which his or her partner or associate is employed as a city attorney.
(c) This section shall not preclude any city from limiting or prohibiting the private practice of any attorney it retains or employs.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 71, Sec. 77. (SB 1304) Effective January 1, 2015.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=41805.
- Text hash
- sha256 df29ad306e91c770ec858cea6d60a41efc686e1f3589bf70aabbf0cd69de7651
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.