Matthew Dorsey Appointed by Mayor Johnson as City Attorney

Dorsey previously served as city attorney in 2004 and 2005 under Mayor Michael Lenz, as assistant city attorney in 1998 and 1999 and as special counsel to the city from 2002 to 2006.

“I am tremendously honored by this opportunity to work with Mayor Johnson and the rest of the City Council,” Dorsey said in a statement released by the mayor’s office.

Dorsey, who will continue his private practice at the firm O’Connell and Aronowitz P.C. while filling the part-time position, said at this point he only plans to stay in the post for the remainder of Johnson’s final term in office, which ends in January.

“I thought it was a unique opportunity to return to public service,” Dorsey said.

When he served as city attorney in 2004 and 2005, Dorsey revised the city’s ethics code — the first revision to the code in more than 30 years.

Dorsey has been an attorney in Saratoga Springs for 16 years. His brother, Stephen Dorsey, is the Saratoga County attorney and his grandfather was the city attorney in Saratoga Springs for 26 years, ending in 1964. 

Dorsey is also the president of the Saratoga Springs Rotary Club and sits on the board of directors of the Saratoga Springs Rotary Education Foundation.

He is a graduate of Brown University and Vanderbilt Law School and a 1984 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School.