Why Work With Us

Join a collaborative team committed to climate, clean energy, and environmental justice work. The Staff Attorney or Senior Staff Attorney will develop deep substantive knowledge across the 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 fossil fuel and 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: $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 fossil fuel issues and climate and environmental justice, as a Staff Attorney or Senior Staff Attorney at the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center. The Staff Attorney or Senior Staff Attorney 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. The Staff Attorney or Senior Staff Attorney will also supervise the research, writing, and other work of other legal and non-legal staff.

The ideal candidate will have litigation or other legal research and writing experience in climate and climate justice work; an interest in building their environmental law expertise with a focus on fossil fuel issues; enthusiasm for working in a small-team, entrepreneurial office setting. 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 Staff Attorney or Senior Staff Attorney will have responsibility for advancing programmatic goals and needs under the supervision of and in collaboration with the Director of Climate and Environmental Justice. They will undertake a wide range of research and writing projects in the climate and environmental justice program areas. Representative work may include drafting commentaries and other legal research-informed writings to explain complex legal matters to a wider audience; researching and summarizing attorney general activity in a particular area of interest; and reviewing and analyzing rules proposed by federal agencies.

Core Responsibilities:

Legal Research: conduct legal research on fossil fuel and climate legal and policy issues and cases, as well as other areas of law that are relevant to the climate crisis and the 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 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: Experience in the areas of environmental, climate, energy, civil rights, or administrative law with a strong public interest commitment. 4-7 years for Staff Attorney II; 8+ years for Senior Staff Attorney. Preference for candidates with complex litigation experience.
Research and writing: Excellent legal research, analytic, and writing skills; experience editing work of others as well as incorporating feedback.
Project Management: Implement and drive program objectives; critically assess progress, identify opportunities and challenges, proactively propose strategy development; develop and maintain relationships with stakeholders.
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.

Application Instructions

Deadline: We will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis on August 1, 2024.

Salary: $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). We will consider a remote schedule for this position on a case-by-case basis.

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 $98,000 - $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.

Interested candidates can apply by sending a resume, cover letter, and legal writing sample to stateimpactcenter@nyu.edu. The cover letter should include a brief statement about how you would support the Center’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please send your application as a single PDF file saved as LastName.FirstName.pdf. If chosen as a finalist, references will be required. The Center is unable to review applications submitted through alternate methods, such as LinkedIn or Indeed.

EOE/AA/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, NYU School of Law

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Staff Attorney or Senior Staff Attorney