NRDC’s Litigation Team is looking to hire a Litigation Fellow for a term-limited position ending in January 2021. The Litigation Team is a group of approximately 30 lawyers and 7 litigation assistants who collaborate across several NRDC offices. The team pursues litigation across a broad range of environmental, public health, and environmental justice issues. We have filed lawsuits resisting the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle environmental protections, including cases defending national monuments, challenging the suspension of clean water safeguards, opposing offshore drilling and seismic exploration, and protecting energy efficiency standards. We also have a growing docket of environmental enforcement cases against government and private party polluters. This includes cases to protect the people of Newark, New Jersey and Flint, Michigan, from lead in drinking water; to remediate toxic pollution in the Penobscot River in Maine; to abate mold in New York City public housing for residents with asthma; and to halt air pollution from a coal-fired power plant in Illinois.
The Litigation Fellow will work with other members of the Litigation Team and under the supervision of senior attorneys to develop and pursue litigation on behalf of NRDC and its partners. This litigation may include, for example, challenges to the Trump Administration’s rollback of environmental and public health advances; working in collaboration with and on behalf of environmental justice communities to address the disproportionate burdens placed on vulnerable populations; and other cases to protect wildlife, public lands, and human health from environmental harms.
In assessing candidates, we will look for:
- Exceptional legal writing and analytical skills;
- Strong oral communication skills;
- Enthusiasm for teamwork;
- Openness to working with people from different backgrounds;
- Evidence of creativity and resourcefulness;
- Demonstrated commitment to public service or social justice work; and
- Record of academic or professional accomplishment.
Candidates with significant hands-on litigation experience (for example, clinical or judicial clerkship experience) are preferred. We also welcome opportunities to enhance the diversity of NRDC’s staff.