PROVIDENCE — The legal counsel for Roger Williams Medical Center spent more than three hours on the witness stand yesterday answering questions about a consulting contract that he crafted for Sen. John A. Celona, of North Providence, to work at an assisted-living facility in Providence affiliated with the hospital.

James R. McGuirk, a partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, a Providence law firm, calmly responded to scores of questions about the contract that Robert A. Urciuoli, then the hospital’s president and chief executive officer, wanted him to complete in late 1997.

McGuirk, who was also a close friend of Urciuoli, urged him not to hire Celona because of potential conflicts arising from taking legislative action on health-care issues that could directly affect the hospital and the assisted-living center.

McGuirk spent more than six hours on the witness stand over the past two days. He said that Urciuoli wanted to hire Celona because he needed a job and had a great rapport with senior citizens in the Providence area.

At the time, 1997, Celona’s family lawnmower repair business in North Providence was failing.

In the late ’90s, Roger Williams was struggling financially and looking for ways to attract senior citizens to its assisted-living center, nursing home and hospital.

Howard Cooper, one of Urciuoli’s lawyers, spent most of the day cross-examining McGuirk. He was followed by Larry Tipton, a lawyer for Frances P. Driscoll, the hospital’s former vice president for corporate communications and development.

Urciuoli and Driscoll are on trial on federal corruption charges. They are accused of bribing Celona by offering him a $700-a-month consulting job in exchange for influencing legislation that would be beneficial to the medical center.

Celona worked as a consultant for Roger Williams for five years and was paid a total of about $260,000.

In the fall of 2006, Urciuoli and Driscoll were tried and convicted, but the First Circuit of Appeals in Boston overturned the verdict, saying the trial judge erred in his instructions to the jury. The case was sent back to Providence for a second trial that began this week.

Yesterday ended with a brief appearance by Urciuoli’s former executive assistant, Sheila Capobianco.

Capobianco testified at the first Roger Williams trial that she arranged meetings in 1997 involving Urciuoli, Driscoll and McGuirk to discuss Celona’s possible hiring and the procurement of the advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission.

This time, with the government vowing not to call Celona to testify because of problems with his credibility, the prosecution appeared to be using Capobianco to authenticate written communications between Celona and hospital leaders regarding his efforts at the State House on Roger Williams’ behalf.

With Capobianco on the stand, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dulce Donovan also displayed a copy of Urciuoli’s calendar, showing meetings he had with Celona in 1997, when the discussions about his consulting job began. One meeting occurred the day after a key State House vote on controversial hospital-merger legislation affecting Roger Williams that Celona had helped Urciuoli fight, just before the senator asked the hospital president for a job.

Capobianco also testified yesterday that Driscoll voiced her concerns, in passing one day, about the hospital hiring Celona.

“She wasn’t comfortable with the idea,” said Capobianco.

The day ended with Capobianco still on the stand, as lawyers huddled with Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi at sidebar to discuss defense objections to documents that the prosecution sought to introduce.

bmalinow@projo.com