Port Announces Appointment of Ellen Gross as Assistant Port Attorney

Effective immediately, Ellen Gross will assume the role of Assistant Port Attorney for the Port of San Diego, reporting to Port Attorney Thomas Russell. In her new role, she will add management duties to her ongoing responsibilities which include providing guidance and resolving legal issues related to the Port's maritime, real estate, and tourism lines of business.

"Ellen will serve as an exemplary Assistant Port Attorney, as evidenced by her legal abilities, management skills and work ethic," said Russell. "I am delighted to be able to promote an existing Port employee on the basis of merit. This is an important position and Ellen is the right person for the job."

Gross has been an attorney for more than 22 years and a public sector attorney for more than 15 years. Her expertise as a litigator was honed during her time as a Deputy Public Defender in San Diego County's first Office of the Public Defender. While in private practice, she specialized in civil rights and employment law. In 1997, Ellen joined the Office of the City Attorney in the City of Chula Vista. In 2000, she was recruited by the Port of San Diego's Office of the Port Attorney as a Deputy Port Attorney III. Gross's areas of practice include labor and employment law, litigation, civil rights and law enforcement, municipal law, environmental law, first amendment, and land use.

Gross has extensive knowledge of the District's legal issues and has represented the District in numerous litigation matters including matters before the Regional Water Quality Control Board, in state and federal court, as well as the Fourth District and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. She worked extensively on the Port District's ongoing anchoring regulations, and its recent vendor/performer ordinance.

Gross has served as the Acting Assistant Port Attorney for the past six months.

About the Port:

The Port of San Diego is the fourth largest of the 11 ports in California. It was created by the state legislature in 1962. Since then, it has invested millions of dollars in public improvements in its five member cities – Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego.

The port oversees two maritime cargo terminals, two cruise ship terminals, 20 public parks, the Harbor Police Department and the leases of more than 600 tenant and sub tenant businesses around San Diego Bay.

The Port of San Diego is an economic engine, an environmental steward of San Diego Bay and the surrounding tidelands, and a provider of community services and public safety.