Legal Intern

Join the State Impact Center to spend your summer learning about and supporting the climate, energy, and environmental justice work of state attorneys general, the top state legal officials working on climate and environmental protection.

The State Impact Center is recruiting Legal Interns for the summer of 2025. We are seeking motivated law students who want to gain valuable experience in clean energy, climate change, and environmental justice. The Legal Interns will have the opportunity to be involved in many aspects of the Center’s activities, including collaboratively working with state attorney general (AG) offices, researching current legal issues for pending rulemakings or legal challenges, and working on Center projects. Additionally, Legal Interns will have the ability to learn about the importance of communications strategies to effectively communicate environmental, climate, and energy issues to the public.

Ideal candidates will have enthusiasm for working on federal environmental clean energy, climate, and environmental policy issues and a commitment to progressive environmental causes. We are always committed to building an even more diverse and inclusive team and strongly encourage women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and members of other historically marginalized groups to apply.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Conduct legal research and draft memoranda on issues related to clean energy, climate change, and the environment using multiple research resources
• Review relevant case materials, such as briefings and opinions, to identify key legal issues for attention
• Assist in developing communications materials, such as press releases, blog posts, etc., that convey concise and compelling messages about legal issues and the work of state AGs
• Assist in tracking news coverage, social media, and other sources about AGs and clean energy, climate, and environmental issues

Requirements and Qualifications:

• Enrollment as a 1L or 2L law student
• Excellent writing, editing, research, advocacy, and verbal communication skills
• Comfort working under pressure and tight deadlines
• Ability to work well within a team in a fast-paced environment

About the Center

The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at the NYU School of Law is an independent non-partisan academic center dedicated to the study and support of state attorneys general in their work defending and promoting clean energy, climate and environmental laws and policies. 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.

The State Impact Center’s work includes:

• Providing expertise to interested attorneys general on administrative, judicial or legislative matters involving clean energy, climate change, environmental justice, and other environmental issues of regional and national significance.
• Supporting attorneys general through the NYU Law Fellows program.
• Serving as a centralized public source of information on attorney general work and helping to enhance the public’s understanding of the personal impact of the clean energy, climate change, and environmental justice work of state attorneys general.
• Undertaking academic research, holding workshops, and issuing special reports that advance legal and policy analysis on clean energy, climate change, and environmental issues.
• Building an environmental justice resource area focused on promoting a just transition to clean energy.

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.