Two-Year Project Attorney, Healthy States Project

Earthjustice • Washington, DC

2d • $149,200 - $217,100 • Remote

About The Position

Earthjustice seeks a two-year Project Attorney to join our Healthy States project. The project attorney will work with staff on the Healthy Communities team and members of Earthjustice’s regional offices to help identify and develop novel litigation, legal advocacy, and regulatory strategies using state and local laws in a small number of jurisdictions. The goal of the project is to advance state-level and local-level strategies to increase protections from toxic exposure and to hold polluters accountable. Earthjustice is the nation’s leading environmental law organization. Wielding the power of law, Earthjustice partners with our clients to take on the most critical fights of our time—fights to protect the incredible biodiversity and wild places of the planet; to avert climate disaster by transitioning society away from fossil fuels toward clean energy; to safeguard the right of all people to a healthy environment. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer. Founded in 1971, Earthjustice has a distinguished track record of achieving significant, lasting environmental protections. We achieve this by hiring people who share a passion for justice and a healthy environment. Our headquarters are in San Francisco with offices in Anchorage, Bozeman, Chicago, Denver, Honolulu, Houston, Juneau, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. Driven by a passion for justice, inclusion, partnership, and excellence, our core values lead us to seek a broad range of perspectives and backgrounds to achieve our mission and maintain an inclusive environment where all staff are valued and respected. Earthjustice’s Healthy Communities work uses legal and policy tools to reduce or eliminate the exposures that harm people’s health and wellbeing. We recognize that we do this work as part of a broader progressive and social justice ecosystem, and that our advocacy must serve that movement and be informed by the knowledge and wisdom of that ecosystem, especially by those whose lived experiences are most affected by pollution, toxic exposures, and other health burdens. We work closely with community and frontline groups, national and regional EJ advocates, civil rights organizations, tribes, worker and farmworker groups, disability advocates, and others with a stake in the issues we work on.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree.
• Active bar membership in relevant working location.
• 7+ years of litigation experience, or a combination of litigation and legal policy work.
• Comfort with learning new areas of law.
• Excellent legal research, writing, and oral advocacy skills.
• Initiative, judgment, collegial work style, and a strong work ethic.
• Ability and willingness to travel for case work and internal meetings.

Nice To Haves

• Strong preference for those with experience using legal frameworks to advance social and/or environmental justice.

Responsibilities

• Conduct legal research in an array of fields, including but not limited to environmental law.
• Identify and develop novel legal advocacy approaches.
• Support litigation in state courts to advance Earthjustice’s mission.
• Conduct administrative analysis, and advocate before state and local governments.
• Develop and execute toxics-focused advocacy campaigns in collaboration with other Earthjustice attorneys as well as Earthjustice lobbyists and communications staff.
• Collaborate with co-counsel in other organizations and oversee the work of outside experts.
• Collaborate with Earthjustice staff on communications efforts, including writing reports and blogs.
• Work with Earthjustice staff to help inform fundraising efforts.
• Join other Earthjustice staff in planning and strategy development as appropriate.
• Help create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, and work with colleagues, clients, and partners in a manner consistent with those efforts.

Benefits

• competitive salary
• excellent, comprehensive benefits
• casual and congenial work environment
• qualifying employer for purposes of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed