| Agency Name: | San Francisco City Attorney's Office |
| Type: | office |
| Seal: | City Attorney of San Francisco.png |
| Preceding1: | Court of Sessions |
| Jurisdiction: | Government of San Francisco |
| Headquarters: | San Francisco, California |
| Region Code: | US |
| Coordinates: | 37.7792°N -122.4191°W |
| Chief1 Name: | David Chiu |
| Chief1 Position: | City Attorney |
| Website: | City Attorney website |
The city attorney of San Francisco is an elected position in the City and County of San Francisco, California. While city-county consolidation resulted in the unified government attaining both a city attorney and a district attorney, the two positions are separate and serve different purposes.
Whereas District Attorney office is, as is the case throughout the United States, charged with prosecuting crime (i.e. has the equivalent function of a Prosecutor's Office in other legislations), City Attorney provides legal services to the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and the rest of the city and county administration, examines surety bonds, contracts and ordinances and represents the city and county administration in civil claims, formally as a representative of People of the State of California.
The City Attorney is assisted by a number of Assistant City Attorneys.
The present City Attorney position was created in 1899, when the former offices of the City Attorney and County Attorney were unified; Franklin Knight Lane was the first City Attorney elected under this regime.
The first woman to hold the position was Louise Renne in 1986, appointed by then-mayor Dianne Feinstein following the death of previous City Attorney George Agnost.