New city attorney, familiar face

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

A familiar face in the council chambers has moved up from assistant city attorney to city attorney.

Brad Sloter, a partner at Noah, Smith, Schuknecht and Sloter, was appointed the Charles City attorney in November.

Sloter is not new to the Charles City community.

“I grew up in Charles City. My parents still live here,” he said. His family moved to Charles City in the early 1990s.

“I spent all my childhood here, and I graduated from Charles City High School in 2006,” he said.

Sloter attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids and graduated in 2010 with a business degree.

While working on his undergraduate degree at Coe, Sloter completed an internship at a law firm. After Coe he went to the University of Iowa for his law degree.

“I immediately went from undergrad to law school,” Sloter said. “I graduated in May 2013 from Iowa and I actually came back immediately about a week after that to Charles City.”

While Sloter studied for the bar examine he worked part-time at Noah, Smith and Schuknecht, the firm that would later make him a partner.

Once Sloter returned to Charles City he met and married his wife, Makaila Sloter, who is also from Charles City. They were married in July 2015.

“After the bar examine I started working here full-time after the results came in,” Sloter said.

Ralph Smith was the attorney for the city of Charles City and a partner with Sloter.

“When I came on in 2013 we had a plan in place,” Sloter said. “We weren’t sure exactly when Ralph wanted to retire, but he eventually wanted to transition out.”

Smith mentored Sloter during his time as assistant city attorney and slowly gave him more and more responsibilities.

Smith is now on an “active retirement” and maintains his law license, and Sloter still picks his brain on legal and city matters.

“He has a wealth of experience,” Sloter said. “Having a mentor for new attorneys is really, really important.”

During his time as an attorney, Sloter has dabbled in a little bit of everything involving the law.

“With general practice, you end up having to do a little bit of everything,” Sloter said. “I tend to focus my practice on transactional work and preparing and reviewing contracts as opposed to trial work and litigation.”

Sloter’s change to city attorney was effective Jan. 1.

“It’s been a fairly smooth transition,” he said. “There’s a learning curve for new attorneys. I’ve learned a lot and there’s still a lot I have to learn.”

“We have a really good city staff and a really good council,” Sloter said. “Because of the competency of our staff and they’re really good people and easy to work with, it’s been enjoyable for me just working with them.”

During his year as assistant city attorney, Sloter has taken over the legal leadership role at the council sessions, answering questions posed by the council and advising them on legal issues.

City law is very code-focused, he said.

“Almost on a daily basis I’m referring to our city code or state code to try to answer questions for staff,” Sloter said. “Overall I think the most enjoyable part is our city staff. I’m fortunate to be able to work with them.”

The last time Charles City appointed a city attorney was the mid-’90s.

“I’ve enjoyed the transition,” Sloter said. “Our firm has a long tradition of working with the city.”