Summer 2023 Legal Intern

Overview

The Natural Resources Defense Council (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 staff helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our staff of more than 700 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and internationally from our offices in New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Santa Monica; San Francisco; Bozeman, Montana; and Beijing. 

Position Summary: 

NRDC is seeking to hire a cohort of Summer Legal Interns to work on cases and projects with attorneys across our Program and Litigation Teams. Intern positions are available at our New York, D.C., Chicago, Santa Monica, and San Francisco offices.

Responsibilities

NRDC’s summer legal interns may participate in writing briefs, drafting complaints, preparing legal analyses, obtaining affidavits, investigating violations of environmental and public health laws, developing policy advocacy campaigns, providing public comment, and drafting white papers and comments for submission to Congressional committees and administrative agencies. Our interns play an active role on the frontlines to protect our planet and the communities that depend upon it.   

Qualifications

This internship is designed for current law school students.  Prior experience in environmental law or with environmental issues is not required. In assessing candidates for the summer internship, we look for:    

• Exceptional legal writing and analytical skills;    
• Strong oral communication skills;    
• Experience effectively working on a team;    
• Creativity and resourcefulness;    
• Commitment to public service, equity, or justice;    
• Demonstrated ability to work with people across different social identities and backgrounds;     
• Record of academic and/or professional accomplishment; and    
• Commitment to NRDC’s values and mission.    

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming a diversity of 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 under-represented in the environmental movement. Learn more about the steps we are taking to live up to these values here. 

We are 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, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. 

Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, 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, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider 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.   

NRDC encourages successful applicants to secure funding from scholarships or their law schools, but such funding is not a factor in selecting interns. NRDC will supplement outside funding to ensure interns receive $10,000 for the 10-week internship.

Applications for 2023 Summer Legal Internships can be submitted online at www.nrdc.org/careers. You will need to electronically submit a cover letter, transcript, resume, three references, and a legal writing sample that does not reflect edits by anyone other than you. You will also be asked to answer two short DEI values questions. In your cover letter, please let us know how you learned about the position and indicate all the NRDC offices to which you are applying, as well as any order of preference among the offices. You may address your cover letter to the Hiring Manager.    

The deadlines to submit an application are December 30, 2022 (2Ls) and February 1, 2023 (1Ls). We will begin 1L applicant material review and interviews in January. Offers will be made on a rolling basis; we strongly encourage you to apply early.

If you are having technical difficulty while applying, or if you are a person with a disability and you need assistance applying online, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care by dialing 1-800-889-4422.   

For further information about NRDC, please visit www.nrdc.org.