Steve Otera serves as General Counsel and oversees all legal matters on behalf of the Port of Los Angeles. A member of the Port’s Leadership Team, Otera leads the Harbor Division of the Office of the City Attorney. He was appointed by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer in April 2022. 

As General Counsel, Otera supervises the attorneys who provide general legal advice to the City of Los Angeles Harbor Department, Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, and Intermodal Container Transfer Facility. Harbor Division attorneys draft and approve contracts, handle all legal matters on behalf of the Harbor Department, and advise the Board, Port senior management, and staff on property management, marketing, international trade, maritime, fishing, environmental, and railroad operating matters, and represent the Harbor Department in litigation and administrative and regulatory matters.

Otera has worked at the Port for more than 20 years, most recently as an Assistant City Attorney, where he supervised staff providing in-house legal services. During his nearly two-decade-tenure at the Port, he has handled and overseen major transactional matters such as container terminal leasing and advised the Port on a variety of 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. Before that, he served as an associate attorney for various local area law firms. 

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