Georgetown’s Environmental Law & Justice Clinic (“ELJC” or the “Clinic”) conducts public interest legal work on behalf of underserved clients in the areas of environmental justice, pollution control, natural resources, and climate. The Clinic is an immersive and multi-modal experience, exposing students to the broad range of work in which environmental attorneys engage. We teach students key lawyering and advocacy skills through work on live cases that are excellent learning vehicles.

Our case load involves a mix of litigation matters, regulatory work, and other advisory projects. We select cases of national importance and/or local necessity in which we can protect and promote the health of historically marginalized communities, and the health of wild places and resources. The ELJC advocates on behalf of groups ranging in size from small community groups and neighborhoods to Indigenous Communities, to environmental or public justice organizations.

The students, most of whom are in their third year of law school, work in the clinic full time and receive credit for an entire semester of law school work.  The students work on projects under the supervision of an environmental clinical fellow/supervising attorney and faculty member.  The students also participate in seminars dealing with issues of federal administrative and litigation practice, various substantive fields of law, and issues of professional responsibility as well as team project meetings in which students present some issue that has arisen in their project to their fellow students and supervisors.

The Clinic Director is Sara Colangelo, an alumna of the Clinic. From 2015 to the spring of 2021 Professor Colangelo served as the Director of Georgetown’s Environmental Law & Policy Program, and taught multiple environmental law courses. For many years prior to returning to Georgetown, she was a DOJ Trial Attorney in the Environmental Enforcement Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division. At DOJ, Professor Colangelo managed complex civil environmental enforcement cases and was selected to train and mentor new Honors Program attorneys and interns. She has won numerous awards for her trial work and advocacy, and recently won Georgetown’s Fahy Award for excellence in teaching.

Description of the Fellowship

The Clinic is hiring one lawyer to serve as a clinical teaching fellow and supervising attorney for a two year term beginning in mid-late August 2023. The fellow will have several areas of responsibility, with an increasing role in the Clinic as the fellowship progresses. The fellow will:

• Supervise students’ day-to-day clinical projects, working closely with the students on improving their lawyering skills, especially legal research, writing, and analysis. Much of the supervising attorney’s time is spent guiding students in conducting legal and factual research, reviewing student drafts, making suggestions for improvement, and preparing the students for oral presentations. Fellows are expected to give and receive formal and informal feedback in timely, constructive, respectful ways;
• Take responsibility for his or her own case load, including various opportunities to engage in advocacy, including arguments before administrative, state, and federal judges;
• Share responsibility for designing and teaching seminar sessions;
• Take an active role in project/case development and assist with administrative and case handling responsibilities of the Clinic;
• Participate in a clinical pedagogy seminar and other activities designed to support an interest in clinical teaching and legal education.

This fellowship offers an opportunity to work on interesting, often cutting-edge matters. Fellows assume substantial responsibility for projects at an early stage of their careers and generally play a more important role in the decision-making process than do their contemporaries in other types of law practice. They also have an opportunity to work on a variety of cases, at different stages of development, so they gain a broader understanding of how cases are developed and how the litigation process, in particular, works. Fellows work closely with a broad range of public interest organizations, meeting others who are involved in public interest law and seeing how their organizations function. For those with an interest in clinical teaching, fellows get first-hand experience in clinical supervision, and also participate in, and often co-teach, seminars.

Qualifications

• at least two years post-J.D. work experience in environmental law or related fields; experience with public interest environmental litigation valuable but not necessary
• exceptional legal writing and communications skills, and experience and interest in helping others improve their legal writing, research, and analytical skills
• commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environment and commitment to exhibiting emotional intelligence and awareness of the needs of individuals from different races, cultures, backgrounds, and orientations
  • admission (or willing to be admitted as soon as possible) to the D.C. Bar

Pay and Other Benefits

The annual stipend for the position will be $70,000 the first year and $75,000 the second year plus an opportunity to participate in group health insurance and other benefits, including unlimited free access to a state-of-art, on-site fitness center.  Georgetown University Law Center awards an LL.M in Advocacy to each fellow upon completion of their two-year term.

How to Apply?

Please submit a single PDF file with the following documents in this order: cover letter, resume/CV, law school transcript, three references with contact information (we will only contact references following interviews), and a writing sample that is no longer than 10 pages and not significantly edited by someone else to Clinic Administrator, Niko Perazich, at nwp2@georgetown.edu. Applications will be accepted and reviewed immediately on a rolling basis until July 19, 2023. Interviews are likely to begin before July 19th.