Attorney

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) protects the scientific endeavor by putting its legal expertise to work for scientists who are threatened or silenced due to their findings or fields of study. Our work preserves and expands scientists’ rights and strengthens the legal protections that promote scientific integrity.

The Attorney will take on a number of key responsibilities including working with scientists; presenting educational trainings to scientists; working with stakeholders; and drafting legal filings, articles, and other content.

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Advise climate and environmental scientists about legal rights and options, with a focus on federal employment law issues. This may include directly representing the scientist and/or working with pro bono or institutional counsel to arrange a defense.
• Draft pieces of legal writing such as whistleblower complaints, scientific integrity complaints, and regulatory comments.
• Organize and present webinars and educational events for scientists, attorney CLEs, and other educational programing.
• Draft educational content for scientists and lawyers.
• Write general interest pieces such as blog posts and op-eds.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders such as advocacy groups, law professors, pro bono law firms, scientists, institutional general counsels, and industry partners.
• Research and develop legal strategies to defend scientists and scientific endeavors.
• Coordinate with Executive Director, other CSLDF attorneys, and other CSLDF team members.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

• Strong verbal, writing, analytical, and organizational skills; ability to meet deadlines; work well individually and in partnership environment.
• Minimum of 1-3 years demonstrated post-law school litigation experience, ideally with substantial federal employment law experience. Experience with administrative law and First Amendment issues is a strong plus.

We are based in New York City with an office near Columbia/Barnard in historic Morningside Heights. This position may be remote or hybrid, but will require periodic travel to conferences and events.

The salary range for this position begins at $80,000 per year and increases depending on experience.

You can expect to be part of a team that will support you to learn and gain insights into the front lines of defending climate scientists. We are a small, impact-driven organization – with a flexible and kind working culture. Please let us know what flexibility looks like to you.