This two-year fellowship is available starting in September 2018. For the first year, through August 2019, the Fellow will work at Natural Resources Defense Council in one of our US offices. During that time, the Fellow will focus on litigation or policy efforts to redress environmental and public health harms, including air and water pollution, climate change, threats to endangered species, environmental injustice, and exposure to toxic chemicals. If the Fellow is placed with NRDC’s Litigation Team, she will represent NRDC and its members in federal or state court litigation, and may work closely with other environmental, labor, and public health groups. If the Fellow is placed with an NRDC subject matter program (such as Energy, Climate, Oceans, Water, or Environmental Justice), she will pursue policy initiatives in one or more of those areas. In either case the Fellow will work closely with, and be supervised by, experienced NRDC attorneys. The Fellow will be placed in one of NRDC’s major offices, depending on the Fellow’s preference and NRDC’s needs.
For the second year, the Fellow will work at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, providing support for environmental law clinics, dual degree students, and events and activities relating to environmental law and policy. The Fellow’s primary responsibility will be to coordinate and co-teach the EPC along with NRDC experts and a Yale faculty member. As noted above, the EPC is an interdisciplinary clinic offered jointly between Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The EPC creates teams of graduate students to work on substantial projects for outside organizations. Projects include litigation support, administrative advocacy, legislative drafting, strategic and communications planning, network building, scientific literature reviews, and more. In addition to being the primary coordinator of the EPC, the Fellow will also have substantive supervision responsibilities for particular EPC student projects. It is the intention of NRDC and Yale that those projects will include matters that the Fellow has already worked on during the first year of the Fellowship at NRDC.
• Juris Doctorate within the past three years from any law school.
• Admission (or eligibility for admission on motion) to the relevant state bar for the NRDC office where the Fellow will work.
• Exceptional legal writing, analytical, and oral advocacy skills.
• Excellent academic and professional record.
• Comfort interpreting scientific and technical concepts.
• Strong interpersonal skills and enthusiasm for teamwork.
• Capacity to work hard, efficiently, and independently.
• Commitment to public service or social justice work.
• Interest in mentoring students in environmental advocacy.
• Judicial clerkship or substantial clinical experience (preferred).
• From the online posting at https://careers-nrdc.icims.com/jobs/3726/environmental-law-fellow/job , please create a profile. Upload your resume, then use the “additional documents” prompts to upload a cover letter, a legal writing sample that does not reflect substantial editing from others, a list of three professional references, and a law school transcript.
• In your cover letter, please tell us how you found out about this position and specify which NRDC offices (New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Bozeman, San Francisco, and Santa Monica) you’re able to work in, in order of preference.
• The application deadline is October 12, 2017. NRDC and Yale will review applications and schedule interviews for this position on a rolling basis.