Feuer Appoints New General Counsel for POLA

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer April 11, named Steve Otera as general counsel to the City of Los Angeles Harbor Department. Otera will oversee the legal team advising on Port of Los Angeles operations and serve as in-house counsel to port management and the Los Angeles Harbor Commission.

Otera has worked nearly two decades at the Harbor Department, most recently as an assistant city attorney. He replaces Janna Sidley, who retired earlier this year.

As an assistant city attorney, Otera supervised staff providing in-house legal services at the port, handled and oversaw major matters such as container terminal leasing, and advised port management and Harbor Commission on a variety of other port legal matters, including municipal governance, land use and development, contracting and negotiation, litigation management, among other areas.

Prior to working in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, Otera spent more than a decade in private practice, including as director of legal compliance and education at LRN (formerly the Legal Research Network), where he managed development of web-based, multimedia workplace ethics and legal compliance training modules for clients such as Ford Motor Co., Johnson & Johnson and Boeing. Previous to that, he served as an associate attorney for several local area law firms.

Otera earned his bachelor’s degree from UCLA, and Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.