Tech Justice Law Project Post Grad Law Fellow (Remote)

The Tech Justice Law Project (TJLP), established in 2023 as a new project of Campaign for Accountability, was founded to 1) build and strengthen tech accountability litigation efforts, and 2) reimagine the legal doctrine and discourse that governs tech accountability, primarily in the US. TJLP sits within a broader network of technologists, organizations, litigators and academics, all advocating for tech reform and accountability. TJLP is now looking for a postgraduate law fellow to join the team!

As a new initiative, TJLP has a start-up culture that provides much opportunity for the right candidate. On a typical day at TJLP, a postgraduate fellow could expect to undertake any of the following responsibilities:

• Meet with coalition partners and brainstorm strategic amicus interventions in key tech litigation;
• Review amicus briefs already filed in key cases and draft analyses for publication in a tech media outlet;
• Undertake legal research and drafting on important tech accountability cases in US courts;
• Conduct legal research about the constitutionality / legality of important tech legislative reform proposals at federal and state level and meet with legislative offices;
• Attend US Supreme Court or appellate court oral arguments in key social media accountability cases, take notes during oral argument, and publish blog posts;
• Speak to reporters on background about trends and developments in legal / policy issues;
• Attend broader coalition meetings as a representative of TJLP;
• Lead 1:1 meetings with partners in the broader tech reform movement / network;
• Connect partners with resources and experts within the broader tech reform community;
• Prepare for and host litigator / legal academic / researcher convenings in person and/or online;
• Work with researchers to update Big Tech litigation tracker;
• Pitch ideas for new projects / cases within TJLP;
• Pivot nimbly to take on the rapidly shifting needs of the org as it grows and responds to needs in the tech reform ecosystem

We invite applications from candidates who are passionate about tech policy and law, and particularly from an angle of pursuing accountability. Ideally, the right candidate for the job will both be trained in US law, and have some work or academic experience with tech law and policy. Given the start-up nature of TJLP, this position will be a better fit for candidates who are flexible, able to take charge in an unstructured environment, willing to bring high level ideas to the strategy table, but equally willing to dive into the weeds of planning logistics or case updates.

Background on Tech Justice Law Project

Increasingly, Big Tech is turning to the courts to protect their business model and stymie any legislative or regulatory progress advocates have made to rein in their unbridled power. The prospects of regulating political advertisements, transparency measures, and online safety and data privacy frameworks are all threatened by existing interpretations of US constitutional and statutory law.

TJLP plays a distinct role in the tech accountability field, filling a gap by serving as the connective tissue between tech accountability litigation and the tech reform movement. TJLP convenes progressive allies, academics, and regulators to weigh in on important tech cases and engage in public conversations about the issues raised, moving debate beyond the tech reform community. To that end over the past year and a half, TJLP has begun bringing together litigators, technologists, public interest lawyers, state attorneys general, academics, and others to build a network of important voices and advisors.

TJLP has been identifying strategic opportunities for these leaders to weigh in on important cases through amicus briefs filed in both state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court. TJLP seeks to publicize its work and thought leadership to tech and legal journalists, key stakeholders, and other prominent voices to ensure these important arguments regarding consumer safety become part of the public discourse. Just as lawmakers are not insulated from public opinion, neither are judges. TJLP firmly believes that as important as the legal issues in a case is the narrative-framing potential of a case – strategically telling stories about the victims/survivors of tech harm and revealing how law has been weaponized to serve political objectives or for the tech industry to maintain the status quo and avoid accountability.

Areas of focus:

TJLP is focusing in four principal areas:

1. Nurture creative legal scholarship and practice: TJLP will work within the ivory towers to identify and nurture fresh thinking that can inform innovative approaches to policy making and litigation. Currently the democratic fundamentals of media resilience and online freedom are in jeopardy. Fundamentalist interpretations of the Constitution have elevated “speech” above all other rights, and, as Professor Mary Anne Franks argues, has contributed greatly to produce a deregulatory, “free market” approach to constitutional rights that is most fully realized in the idealization of the Internet. We need to foster clarity and consensus at the level of fundamental theory on concepts such as freedom of speech and expression, media freedom, corporate accountability, and digital human and civil rights by producing a body of work that shifts the discourse in light of the digital age and influences lawmakers, regulators, judges, and the public.
2. Create a network of tech litigators and facilitate strategic connections to the broader tech accountability movement: TJLP is helping to facilitate these connections and resource-sharing, mobilize groups of interested amici and organize amicus briefs where useful, contribute to developing new fact patterns, sharing empirical research, and identify prospective plaintiffs with litigators willing and able to file claims.
3. Establish collaborative knowledge hubs: TJLP is helping build a knowledge hub of litigation-related resources that allows for wide documentation and dissemination of ideas. For example, it is building litigator directories, collating and vetting model tech reform bills at the state level in particular, developing case and policy trackers, hosting periodic calls and convenings for the tech litigator network, offering training to key categories of decision-makers (e.g., state AGs) and advocates, and fostering broad discussion. TJLP will also provide resources and support to other initiatives that use FOIA requests, court dockets, open source investigation, motions to unseal, and leaked platform documents in order to develop strategies for accessing, sharing and centralizing information in the public interest.
4. Build a pipeline of public interest tech lawyers: TJLP is investing in lawyers willing to champion tech accountability, not resisting against it or trying to preserve the status quo. TJLP will work to recruit students and junior professionals into the fight for tech accountability, exposing them to the work and create opportunities for their integration into the movement for tech reform. They would be encouraged and receive support to become critical legal entrepreneurs – asking what the law should be, not what it has been or is today.

Salary and Benefits

This is a one year, funded position plus benefits. This is an entirely remote position; if any travel will be required as part of the fellowship work, the Fellow will be provided the necessary resources for travel.

Applications

This fellowship is open to both Spring 2025 graduates and alumni of ABA accredited law schools. The ideal candidate would begin the fellowship by summer 2025, or late summer 2025 for someone taking the July 2025 bar exam. The fellowship is generously supported through the Public Interest Technology University Network (https://pit-un.org/) and PIT-UN member institution, Temple University.

To apply for this position, please send the following application materials to Laura Bingham, Executive Director, Institute for Law, Innovation & Technology (laura.bingham@temple.edu) in an email with subject heading “TJLP Fellowship”:

• A current resume
• A short statement (no more than 1 page) of why you are interested in working with TJLP
• A short (5 pages max) writing sample
• Two references

For full consideration, please submit all application materials by April 15, 2025.