Job Posting
Beagle/HLS Fellowship (Litigation) 2025-2027
New York, Chicago, Santa Monica, Washington DC, or San Francisco
Overview
The Beagle/HLS Fellowship at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a position with NRDC’s Litigation Team open to Harvard Law School (HLS) students and recent alumni. The Beagle Fellowship was established by a generous gift to HLS by the Beagle Foundation, which was established by the late Joy Covey ’89. The Beagle/HLS Fellow will serve as part of a cohort of around six other Litigation Team fellows. Information about the Litigation Team’s Fellowships is available here.
NRDC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. We use law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members and online activists to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. NRDC was founded in 1970 and our people helped write some of America’s bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our team of more than 600 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and the globe from our offices in Beijing; Chicago; New Delhi; New York; San Francisco; Santa Monica; and Washington, D.C.
Position Summary
| NRDC is seeking a Beagle/HLS Fellow to work with the Litigation Team in its Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Santa Monica, or Washington, D.C. offices. The term for this fellowship is Fall 2025 through Fall 2027, with the possibility of extension through Fall 2028.
The Beagle/HLS Fellowship is open to graduating Harvard Law School students or recent alumni who graduated in 2022 or later. Applicants must be available to start work in Fall 2025. The Fellow will join NRDC’s Litigation Team, a group of approximately 40 lawyers, paralegals, and operations staff. The Team pursues litigation across a broad range of environmental and public health issues and in collaboration with and on behalf of communities most impacted by environmental injustices (including Black, indigenous, and people of color, and low-income and rural communities). Over the past several years, the Team has litigated cases against the federal government to prevent climate pollution, challenge agency approvals of toxic chemicals and pesticides, resist the suspension of clean water safeguards, oppose offshore drilling and seismic exploration for oil and gas, defend national monuments, and protect energy efficiency standards, among other matters. The Team also brings enforcement cases against corporate and governmental entities whose violations harm health and the environment—including recent cases to protect the people of Newark, New Jersey and Flint, Michigan, from lead in drinking water; to remediate toxic pollution in the Penobscot River in Maine; to abate mold in New York City public housing for residents with asthma; and to clean up a chemical manufacturing plant in Pittsburg, California. |
Responsibilities
| The Beagle/HLS Fellow’s responsibilities include:
· Working with a team of lawyers and paralegals on active cases and case development projects, including by both providing support on cases led by senior attorneys and leading cases, or substantial aspects of cases, under the supervision of senior attorneys. · Collaborating with NRDC program staff, clients, experts, and coalition and community partners to support litigation goals. · Conducting legal research and factual investigations. · Writing briefs, motions, and memoranda. · Presenting oral arguments and participating in status conferences and other hearings. · Engaging in discovery and conducting record and document review. · Preparing for and taking depositions. · Contributing to institutional initiatives such as projects related to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our work, intern hiring and coordination, and organizing CLEs. |
Qualifications
| This Beagle/HLS fellowship is designed for Harvard Law School graduates and attorneys with up to three years of litigation experience. In assessing candidates, we look for:
· Admission to the Bar of the jurisdiction in which they intend to practice, or willingness to complete the requirements for admission to that Bar. · Strong legal writing and analytical skills. · Strong oral and written communication skills. · Ability to work independently and take initiative. · Experience working effectively with a team. · Demonstrated competency in working with people with different social identities than their own (including race, gender, sexual identity or orientation, age, class, and disability). · Creativity and resourcefulness. · Demonstrated commitment to public service, equity, or social justice (including environmental, economic, or racial justice). · Commitment to NRDC’s values and mission. |
NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. NRDC believes that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet’s most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically underrepresented in the environmental movement.
NRDC is an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, NRDC will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
NRDC offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a supportive working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and commensurate with skills and experience. For this position, the salary is $91,000 to $100,000. Internal equity considerations will be reviewed before making a final offer.
The Fellow’s salary will be treated as eligible for HLS’s loan repayment program.
NRDC’s offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence.
As a science-based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID-19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, NRDC asks that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. NRDC considers a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC-approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination, those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine-related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws.
To apply, visit www.nrdc.org/careers and upload your résumé, cover letter, law school transcript, writing sample, and a personal essay (no more than 500 words). Please include a statement in your cover letter indicating which NRDC office(s) you would prefer working in, and which office you would consider. We also request two letters of recommendation, preferably including one from an HLS faculty member, and the name of a third reference. Please include the names of your recommenders and reference in your cover letter. Please send the letters themselves directly to the HLS Environmental Law Program, addressed to May Huang.
The application deadline is October 22, 2024. Applications will be reviewed by NRDC and an HLS Committee. First-round interviews will be conducted in October/November 2024. Applicants will be notified about the outcome of the selection process by December 2024.
If you experience technical problems while applying or if you are a person with a disability and need assistance applying online, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care at 1-800-889-4422.
For more about NRDC, visit www.nrdc.org.