Legal Fellow

Why Work With Us

Join a collaborative team committed to environmental justice, climate, and clean energy work. The Legal Fellow will develop deep substantive knowledge across the State Impact Center’s areas of expertise and gain significant experience with writing and communications. We offer the opportunity to think creatively about legal issues, build expertise, and work on important climate matters. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment for our staff. We offer a generous benefits package through NYU, which includes tuition remission and retirement benefits. We offer a competitive salary that is commensurate with experience: $82,000-92,000 (0-3 years of experience); $98,000-108,000 (4-7 years of experience); $116,000 (8+ years of experience).

About the Center

The State Impact Center is a nonpartisan academic think tank based at NYU School of Law. The Center is dedicated to working towards a healthy and safe environment, guided by inclusive and equitable principles. To accomplish this, the Center studies and supports the work of state attorneys general and other state-level agencies in defending, enforcing, and promoting strong laws and policies in the areas of climate, environmental justice, environmental protection, and clean energy. We undertake academic research, hold workshops, and issue special reports that advance legal and policy analysis. We are a small, collaborative team, and value each person’s insights and contributions.

Diversity is a core value of the Center. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment for our staff. We believe every member on our team enriches our diversity by exposing us to a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver solutions.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for a self-motivated attorney to work on climate, environmental justice, energy, and environmental protection issues as a Legal Fellow at the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center. The Legal Fellow will be involved in many of the Center’s activities, including supporting state attorney general offices, conceiving programs and events, and developing academic and other written products.

This is a one-year fellowship position beginning in winter 2024, with the possibility of extension for a second year upon mutual agreement.

The ideal candidate will have an interest in climate and justice work; an interest in building their environmental and energy law expertise; and enthusiasm for working in a small-team, entrepreneurial office setting where each person works on their substantive portfolio as well as contributes to the State Impact Center’s overall priorities. We are always committed to building an even more diverse and inclusive team and strongly encourage women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to apply.

The Legal Fellow will have responsibility for a wide range of research and writing projects in the environmental, climate, and energy space through a justice and equity lens. Representative work may include reviewing and analyzing rules proposed by federal agencies; drafting commentaries and other writings to explain complex legal matters to a wider audience; and researching and summarizing attorney general activity in a particular area of interest.

Core Responsibilities:

• Legal Research: conduct legal research on environmental and energy law issues and cases, as well as other areas of law that are relevant to climate change and the clean energy transition.
• Legal Writing: draft legal memoranda and other documents outlining relevant issues.
• Presentations: present legal research and analysis to colleagues and outside collaborators.
• Projects: draft, review, and collaborate on State Impact Center publications, including newsletters, blog posts, issue briefs, and longer projects.
• Requirements and Qualifications:Education: J.D. from an accredited law school and admitted to practice in or willing to seek admission in New York.
• Experience: a preference for experience in the areas of environmental, climate, energy, civil rights, or administrative law; public interest commitment. 0-3 years for Legal Fellow I; 4-7 years for Legal Fellow II; 8+ years for Senior Fellow.
• Research and writing: excellent research, analytic, and writing skills; experience editing work of others as well as incorporating feedback; ability to engage with new legal topics and locate and analyze relevant resources to build expertise.
• Judgment: exercises sound judgment and affirmatively raises concerns; self-directed; demonstrates an awareness of and sensitivity to diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
• Collaborative: ability to work well within a team in a fast-paced environment.
• Deadlines: ability to manage simultaneous projects and prioritize.

Salary: $82,000-92,000 (0-3 years of experience); $98,000-108,000 (4-7 years of experience); $116,000 (8+ years of experience). Benefits offered include medical/dental/vision, tuition remission at certain NYU schools, retirement benefits, and more.

Our office is located in New York City, and this position would be appropriate for a hybrid schedule, with up to two remote days per week on a regular basis (approval of schedule required).

Benefits offered include medical/dental/vision, tuition remission at certain NYU schools, retirement benefits, and more. State Impact Center staff also have access to academic enrichment opportunities at NYU School of Law, including some faculty workshops, colloquia, and other scholarly forums.

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In compliance with NYC’s Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is $82,000 - $116,000. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and organizational considerations when extending an offer.

NYU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its recruitment and hiring process without regard to age, alienage, caregiver status, childbirth, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, domestic violence victim status, ethnicity, familial status, gender and/or gender identity or expression, marital status, military status, national origin, parental status, partnership status, predisposing genetic characteristics, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, unemployment status, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply for vacant positions at all levels.