EarthJustice: Sustainable Food and Farming

Staff Attorney

We are now accepting applications for a Staff Attorney to work with the Sustainable Food and Farming Program to be based in Earthjustice’s Washington, DC, New York, or San Francisco office.  We seek an experienced and skilled attorney to join our growing team to develop and deploy legal strategies to reform the industrial food system, ensure safe food, promote sustainable agriculture, and reduce agriculture’s climate, environmental, and social impacts.   

Earthjustice is expanding its work on sustainable food and farming, building on its vast experience litigating to protect the environment and public health, and its successes reducing pesticide use, toxic food additives, and water pollution.  Agriculture and food issues represent the next frontier for more sustainable production to satisfy human needs while minimizing environmental, worker and consumer harm.  We represent environmental organizations and consumer watchdogs as well as farmworkers and sustainable producers, grassroots organizations and environmental justice communities.  We focus on three areas: safer food -- protecting people from toxic chemicals in foods and minimizing diet-related disease; sustainable farming -- limiting reliance on agricultural chemicals, reducing agricultural pollution, and fostering responsible methods of crop and animal production; and climate-friendly farming -- reducing the food system’s contribution to climate change and increasing farms’ resilience to climate shocks.  The Staff Attorney will work closely with the rest of the sustainable food and farming team based in NYC to develop and deploy new strategies in all these areas.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop cases and legal advocacy strategies to support program goals.
• Litigate cases from beginning to end, performing all aspects of litigation.
• Conduct administrative and legislative advocacy, including comments, testimony, petitions, media, and coalition building.
• Supervise the work of Associate Attorneys.
• Collaborate with colleagues and coalition partners.
• Manage relationships with co-counsel, clients, and coalition partners.
• Serve as spokesperson for client partners and for Earthjustice.
• Work effectively with other departments within Earthjustice, including Communications, Development, and Policy and Legislation.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree.
• A minimum of 8 years of litigation experience.
• Licensed to practice law in New York, Washington DC, California, or willingness to apply for admission in that jurisdiction within one year of employment. 
• Excellent litigation skills, including top-notch legal research, writing and oral advocacy skills, with a strong preference for affirmative litigation experience.
• Initiative, good judgment, and a strong work ethic.
• Knowledge and experience in environmental law are strongly preferred; experience in food and agriculture law also preferred.
• Proficient at working with technical experts.
• Ability to work independently and in collaboration with client partners and staff.
• Ability and willingness to travel as needed for case work, court appearances and presentations (approximately 10% of the time).
• Commitment to serving the public interest.
• Demonstrated awareness and sensitivity to the needs and concerns of individuals from diverse cultures, backgrounds and orientations.
• Demonstrated commitment to the creation of a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce and culture that encourages and celebrates differences.

We offer a mission- and employee-focused work environment and a competitive compensation package, including excellent benefits.  Earthjustice is an equal opportunity employer and highly values diversity.

TO APPLY

Interested applicants should submit a:

• Resume
• Cover letter
• Writing sample (please indicate the extent to which others had input)
• List of 3 references

Please reach out to jobs@earthjustice.org if you are having technical difficulties submitting your application.

No phone calls, drop-ins, or hard copies.

EarthJustice Staff Attorney

Staff Attorney: International Coal

Earthjustice is now accepting applications for a Staff Attorney to work with the Coal Program on our growing body of work with partners in South Asia.  This work seeks to speed the global transition from coal to clean energy.  This position will ideally be housed in our Philadelphia or San Francisco offices.  However, for the right candidate, we would consider housing the position in other Earthjustice regional offices. Our headquarters are in San Francisco with thirteen offices across the U.S. We seek an experienced and skilled attorney to join our team of lawyers and advocates who are working to end our dependence on coal-fired power and to ensure that coal’s toxic legacy is cleaned up.  The position will entail ten consecutive days to two weeks of travel every quarter.

The Staff Attorney will join Earthjustice’s Coal Program, which uses hard-hitting litigation and administrative advocacy to work to end reliance on dirty, expensive, and outdated coal-fired power, and to transform the energy sector into one that is clean, renewable, and modern.  Our docket includes litigation to secure and strengthen stringent environmental standards for coal plants, lawsuits challenging government or industry failure to implement such standards, and challenges to utility proposals to spend hundreds of millions of dollars or more on aging coal plants rather than investing in clean energy.  For more information about the Coal Program, please visit http://earthjustice.org/about/offices/coal.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with international partners and other Earthjustice attorneys to develop cases and advance legal advocacy strategies to support program goals

• Represent and collaborate with organizations and communities both domestically and in other countries to establish, strengthen, and enforce national and international legal protections for the environment and public health

• Develop and strengthen relationships with colleagues internationally

• Support and participate in administrative and legislative advocacy, including comments, testimony, and petitions

• Help develop and execute effective media strategies

• Help create and lead effective coalitions to achieve lasting change

• Supervise the work of Associate Attorneys

• Manage relationships with co-counsel, clients, coalition partners, and funders

• Serve as spokesperson for client partners and for Earthjustice

• Work effectively with other departments within Earthjustice, including Communications and Development

Qualifications and Application Info

POST-GRAD LEGAL FELLOWSHIP, COAL PROGRAM

EarthJustice Fellowship

Earthjustice’s Coal Program, which uses litigation and advocacy to challenge the coal industry’s harmful impacts on people and the environment and to speed our nation’s transition to clean energy, is now accepting applications for candidates interested in seeking post-graduate legal fellowships funded through the Equal Justice Works or Skadden programs, a law school, or other sources to commence in the fall of 2018. The position would be based in our Philadelphia, PA or Washington, DC offices, or in Chicago, IL.  Qualifying applications will be for a one- or two-year project, to commence in the fall of 2018, with a preference for projects focusing on environmental issues affecting communities of color, low-income people, and other vulnerable populations.

Our Work: The fellowship attorney will work closely with experienced Earthjustice attorneys in challenging our nation’s reliance on aging coal-fired power plants, and to speed the transition to clean energy resources. A core part of that work has been seeking to ensure that communities are not left with the toxic legacy of unsafe coal ash disposal that threatens public health and water supplies at nearly 1,400 sites in the U.S.  We also work to require the promulgation of stringent environmental standards to reduce pollution from coal plants, defend those standards after they are issued, and bring permitting and enforcement actions to ensure that environmental standards are faithfully implemented. In addition, we litigate in state public utility commissions to halt proposed investments in aging and uneconomic coal plants and to shift such investments to clean energy resources. The Fellow will work closely with staff attorneys and clients to develop and implement litigation and advocacy strategies, and will participate in the full range of tasks involved, such as factual investigation, legal research, discovery, briefing, witness preparation, and oral advocacy.

Who We Are Looking For: Earthjustice seeks highly qualified candidates who possess outstanding legal research and writing skills and are interested in working as a fellow for at least one year. Applicants should be third-year law students, judicial clerks, or other recent law school graduates who are eligible for post-graduate fellowships. Applicants should have a strong academic record, strong work ethic and sense of initiative, strong interest in working on environmental issues in a social justice context, sound and creative judgment, an ability to work well in a collegial setting, and a demonstrated awareness of and sensitivity to the needs and concerns of individuals from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and orientations.

To Apply and For More Information

Legal Intern: Clean Meat Regulation Abroad

Internship with Good Food Institute

Duration: 10-20 hours per week for 8-10 weeks

Start date: Rolling

Purpose: The purpose of this internship is to support the work of GFI’s Policy Department to promote a healthy, humane, and sustainable food supply through regulatory and legislative reform. Specifically, we are looking for legal help (from interns or fellows) to conduct research into regulatory pathways for clean meat in countries outside of the United States.

Activities: The main activities of this internship are: 1) legal research into food regulation in a specific jurisdiction outside of the United States; and 2) analysis of how clean meat could be brought to market under the regulatory framework that currently exists in that jurisdiction.

Deliverables: The end result of this internship will be a legal research memorandum addressing the specific steps that producers should take to get approval to bring clean meat to market. Where the law is unclear or multiple regulatory pathways are available to clean meat producers, the memorandum should provide a compelling analysis of what the best pathway forward would be.

Learning Objectives: The primary learning objective is for the intern or fellow to develop expertise in researching how food is regulated in a country outside of the United States and analyzing a novel question of law.

Compensation: This position is unpaid.

How to apply

Associate Attorney in Alaska

The Alaska office of Earthjustice is seeking applications for an Associate Attorney position. 

The core issues for the Alaska office include protection of the Alaska coastal rain forest, safeguarding of America’s Arctic, action to combat climate change and limit its effects, wildlife conservation, protection of lands and waters from mining activities, conservation of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska marine ecosystem, air and water quality enforcement, and national park and other public lands management.  Our clients include national, regional and local conservation organizations, Alaska Native tribal organizations, and community groups, as well as other organizations concerned about enforcing the laws to protect the environment.

The Alaska office has locations in Juneau and Anchorage. 

The term for this position is three years.

Learn more here.

FOOD PROJECT FELLOW

PUBLIC JUSTICE FOUNDATION

http://www.publicjustice.net

Date Posted: 08/31/2017
Job Type: Legal: Project-Based (e.g., Skadden)
Schedule: Long-term & full-time
Experience: Entry Level 0-3 years
Bar membership required: Awaiting Results

Practice Areas: Animal Rights, Consumer Protection/Debt, Employment/Labor, Environmental, First Amendment, Food and Drug, Litigation, Water Resources

Job Description

Public Justice is a nonprofit organization dedicated to pursuing high impact lawsuits nationwide to preserve the integrity of our society and the planet we call home. It seeks to host recent law graduates with outside fellowship funding, including fellowships through Equal Justice Works, Skadden, and law schools, as part of its Food Project.

Public Justice’s Food Project works to address the fact that our current industrialized factory farm system allows a few corporate actors to exercise extraordinary legal, legislative, electoral, communications, and market power, to the detriment of independent farmers, animals, the land, water, consumers, and the public. Our vision is part of the good food movement’s vision for a food and animal agriculture system that is just, sustainable and accountable. To attain our vision, Public Justice’s Food Project uses cutting-edge litigation that is coordinated with the larger good food movement to redress the structural and institutional inequities on which the current system relies. Our work falls under the following tactical umbrellas: (1) forcing the industrialized factory farm model to internalize impacts on farmed animals, neighboring communities, food chain workers, and the environment; (2) challenging misleading narratives, including consumer product information, and industry-sponsored laws that block transparency or seek to disguise the true nature of industrial production; (3) combating corporate consolidation and dominance of markets on behalf of independent producers; and (4) aligning ourselves with independent farmers and rural communities against an administration that purports to speak for these constituencies, but instead perpetuates corporate power.

The fellow would work with Food Project attorneys and other staff attorneys to develop and implement new legal strategies in one or more of these areas, expanding the Project’s tactics and docket. For example, we would be interested in speaking with candidates about ways to use environmental litigation to protect agricultural workers and their families, develop and implement a campaign to challenge laws that limit factory farms’ liability, or expand our efforts to obtain and publicize records that document the harms caused by industrial agriculture. Public Justice’s two Food Project Attorneys will enthusiastically collaborate with candidates on their fellowship proposals. The fellow could work in either Public Justice’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. or its Oakland, California office.

Environmental Working Group in DC

Environmental Working Group (EWG) is one of the nation’s top environmental health advocacy organizations, with an online community of more than two million engaged citizens.

EWG’s work in environmental health focuses on six major program areas: 1) toxics; 2) food; 3) agriculture; 4) children’s health; 5) energy and 6) water. Our original research and use of technology make complex environmental issues personal and urgent. EWG’s consumer tools – the Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce TM, the Skin Deep® Cosmetics database, the EWG Guide to Healthy Cleaning and others – reach millions. These valuable resources put the power of information in the hands of the consumer, influence markets to support cleaner, greener products and drive the movement to reform underlying laws and policies and protect human health.

ATTORNEY:  EWG seeks an attorney with a commitment to the environment and a desire to thrive in the non-profit space.

More details here.

Associate Attorney - International Program

Earthjustice is now accepting applications for an associate attorney to join our International Program, located in San Francisco, CA. The International Program works with public interest and community groups around the world to establish, strengthen, and enforce national and international legal protections for the environment and public health. Core focus areas of Earthjustice’s international efforts include combating climate change, reducing the world’s dependence on coal-fired power and promoting clean energy in its stead, building marine resilience to ocean acidification, and promoting citizen participation in environmental protection. At the heart of our work is the principle—which we were the first organization to advocate internationally—that all people have a right to a healthy and sustainable environment.

The Associate Attorney program comprises a two-year position with a possible extension for a third year. This program is designed to help attorneys develop into thoughtful, professional, and effective advocates skilled in the various phases of public interest litigation. Many associates have gone on to other positions within Earthjustice or with other public interest organizations.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Associate Attorney will generally work collaboratively with senior Earthjustice attorneys, but is expected to work more independently over time. Associate attorneys perform a range of litigation and advocacy-related tasks that can include:

• Conducting factual investigations and legal research, and preparing memoranda on issues relating to ongoing or potential new cases.
• Drafting motions, briefs, and other pleadings.
• Participating in proceedings before federal and international courts and tribunals.
• Working with clients and experts, and learning how to handle press work. 
• Hiring and supervising law students who work at Earthjustice as interns or clerks.

https://earthjustice.org/about/jobs/35557/associate-attorney-international-program