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Fall River Mayor-elect Will Flanagan confirmed Tuesday his appointment of Taunton City Solicitor Steven Torres as full-time corporation counsel upon his becoming mayor on Jan. 4.
"I have the utmost confidence in him and the duties he's about to perform. I believe he's going to represent this city nobly," Flanagan said.
Torres has been Taunton's city solicitor under three mayors for the past 10 years, and during three of those years has retained Flanagan as his assistant solicitor.
"I'm honored to be working for Will," Torres said.
He's also heading Flanagan's transition team.
Flanagan also said Torres would negotiate union contracts.
For Torres, it's a return to a city where he's had significant experience - but not on the management side of the bargaining table.
From 1994 until 1999, when he accepted his current job, Torres worked as associate general counsel for Council 93 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
During the past two years, he's represented the towns of Mansfield, Holbrook and Wareham as special counsel, and is a principal with the firm of Municipal Law Affiliates Group.
Among his other credentials include: working as an author, editor and lecturer for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education with publications on labor, international, municipal and constitutional law; member of the International Municipal Law Association and past member of the City Solicitors and Town Counsel Association's executive committee.
Torres obtained a bachelor's degree in 1987 from Daniel Webster College in Nashua, N.H., and his law degree, cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School, Boston, in May 1993.
He's a former U.S. Air Force officer, and lives in Taunton.
In past years, he put together the Day of Portugal celebration in the Silver City with community-based volunteers.
