Law School Associate Program

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc.•New York, NY

26d•Hybrid

About The Position

Manhattan Institute’s Law School Associate program is a 10-12-week program that offers law school students the opportunity to work directly with its Constitutional Studies and Legal Policy teams. The Institute is a lean, dynamic, and intellectually driven environment rich with critical thinking and scholarship. Students are put in a position to meaningfully advance the Institute’s mission through research, scholarly writing, journalism, and outreach. Law School Associates are paired with the Director of Constitutional Studies and Director of Legal Policy to assist with research, drafting, editing, and external outreach. Associates will participate in strategic departmental meetings, events, seminars, and policy discussions that assist in advancing their long-term potential and career goals. Over the course of the program, Associates will have the opportunity to work directly with prominent scholars such as Ilya Shapiro, Jim Copland, Chris Rufo, and Rafael Mangual, among others. Areas of research include corporate governance, civil rights, constitutional studies, education, identity politics, judicial issues, regulatory reform, shareholder capitalism, and the Supreme Court. Administrative and clerical work is kept to a minimum. Associates can expect to build skills necessary for careers in the private sector, judicial clerkships, public policy, public interest law, and other relevant opportunities.

Requirements

Strong oral and written communication skills
Ability to research and identify relevant cases, statutes, and secondary materials using tools such as Westlaw or Lexis Nexis
Ability to efficiently and effectively synthesize large amounts of information
Capacity to manage and prioritize multiple projects
Attention to detail
Candidates must be currently enrolled in law school or a JD/MBA program

Nice To Haves

Training in economics and/or understanding of free market principles.
Knowledge of originalism and other text/structure/history-based methods of constitutional interpretation
Familiarity with the Bluebook method of legal citation
Quantitative research background—including spreadsheet analysis, statistics, and econometrics.

Responsibilities

Conduct research for a variety of projects, from op-eds to books
Draft and edit legal briefs, model legislation, and policy papers
Assist with drafting, editing, and citation for research papers, op-ed, model legislation, etc.
Provide briefings on congressional hearings, conferences, panels, recent news stories, and judicial decisions
Promote research products in concert with Communications and Marketing, with a particular focus on outreach to policymakers and opinion-influencers