Jobs

Staff Attorney

Office: Northwest

Location: Seattle, WA

Department: Legal

Job Type: Full Time

Overview:
Our Northwest Office in Seattle, Washington, has an immediate opening for a staff attorney to work on public interest environmental litigation in the Pacific Northwest. Our ideal candidate would have 12 to 15 (or more) years of litigation experience.

From long-standing campaigns to defend old-growth forests to newer initiatives to stop coal-burning power plants, the Northwest office has been a leader in litigation to protect the environment and public health for over twenty years. Our core work includes protecting wild salmon and aquatic habitat, reforming hydropower operations on the Columbia/Snake River, restoring the Klamath River, eliminating toxic pesticides and protecting farmworker health, defending our national forests from logging and roadbuilding, and recovering Puget Sound water quality and species. We are also addressing the causes and impacts of global warming in our region. Our focus is the Pacific Northwest, but many of our cases are national in scope and impact.

We work with and represent national, regional, and local conservation organizations, Indian tribes, commercial and sport fishermen, farmworker groups, unions, and other organizations and individuals concerned about enforcing the laws to protect people and the environment. We are a family-friendly office of 7 attorneys, 3 support staff, and numerous law students and volunteers. We are committed to doing work of exceptional quality, and we have a great time doing it. In addition, Earthjustice offers an outstanding salary and benefits package

Responsibilities:
The person hired for this position will become a senior member of our team and will help develop, coordinate, and pursue litigation under a variety of federal and state laws. Staff attorneys communicate extensively with the media, decisionmakers, and the public, and they work closely with our national communications and policy teams. Staff attorneys also mentor and supervise junior attorneys, interns, and support staff.

Qualifications:
We're looking for someone with all the adjectives -- creative, smart, motivated, collaborative, dedicated -- who wants to join in our continuing efforts to protect wild places, recover imperiled species, reform toxics use, reduce global warming, and leave this world a better place. We seek an attorney with significant litigation experience, including demonstrated research and writing skills, oral advocacy, discovery, and negotiation. A sense of humor is required, as well as a demonstrated commitment to public interest law and familiarity with environmental and/or administrative law. We are an office of open doors; applicants should be willing and able to work closely in a collaborative setting. Admission to the Washington State bar will be required in the first year.