YLS Employment Fellowship & Opportunities
Job Opportunities
LEAP Programming Fellow
The Law, Ethics & Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School invites applications for a full-time post-graduate fellow for the 2022-23 academic year.
The LEAP Post-Graduate Fellow will work closely with LEAP’s executive director, faculty directors, and staff to support and grow the program’s cross-disciplinary initiatives, research, student engagement, and academic programming.
LEAP is a multidisciplinary program at Yale dedicated to two overarching goals. First, we aim to inspire impactful learning and scholarship about the deep legal, scientific and moral questions that humanity’s treatment of other animals raise. Second, we aim to empower Yale scholars and students to advance positive legal and political change for animals, people, and the environment upon which they depend. The Fellow will be an integral team member of this creative program.
This position focuses on communications, event planning, and research and editing. It also includes budget monitoring, correspondence, expense reporting and reimbursement, and managing day-to-day LEAP logistics.
The Fellow will receive a one-year appointment and a competitive salary plus full Yale University benefits.
Principal responsibilities include:
- Planning, overseeing, and coordinating engaging LEAP educational events, including online and in-person speaker events, conferences, and lunch and dinner events. Responsibilities include proposing and inviting speakers; creating marketing materials and publicizing events; coordinating meals, travel and IT needs; processing and monitoring expenses, and ensuring adherence to budget and university requirements.
- Contributing research, writing, and operational support to existing and new LEAP research initiatives and collaborations, including LEAP’s Climate, Animals, Food and the Environment Law and Policy Lab.
- Drafting and managing LEAP communications, including writing articles, creating website content and website maintenance, email communications, and communications with organizational partners within and beyond Yale.
- Overseeing and administering LEAP’s student research grant program.
- Drafting and editing substantive written material, including fundraising reports and/or proposals.
- May perform other duties as assigned.
Requirements:
The Fellow must reside in the New Haven area and begin the appointment on or before July 1, 2022. LEAP welcomes and encourages applications from recent college graduates, as well as from candidates who possess more advanced degrees. Candidates with advanced degrees may have different research opportunities depending on their academic backgrounds.
Required skills and abilities:
- Excellent communication and writing skills. Ability to create clear and compelling materials, including research memos, event descriptions, email announcements, and website articles.
- Excellent project management and organizational skills. Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously. Close attention to detail and ability to make sure nothing fall through the cracks with multiple projects and requests.
- Strong interpersonal skills. The fellow will be an ambassador of LEAP, and will be responsible for establishing and maintaining professional relationships with internal and external contacts.
- Capable at all aspects of event and meeting planning and execution in a university setting, including developing and assembling meeting materials, inviting speakers, arranging rooms, catering, transportation, hotel accommodations, coordinating Zoom and other technology with IT, and creating positive experiences for guests. Ability to occasionally work a flexible schedule, adjusting hours and days as needed for events.
How to apply:
Interested applicants should send their resume and a cover letter describing their interest to Viveca Morris, LEAP Executive Director. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
Yale Law School Fellowship for Living Civil Rights Law Project and Beyond
Ford Foundation Professor of Law Vicki Schultz
April 13, 2022
For Immediate Hire
Yale Law School is looking to immediately hire a recent law school graduate* as a Fellow to work on various projects, focusing first and foremost on an ongoing project entitled Living Civil Rights Law. The Fellow will be responsible for legal research and logistical support for this project (and perhaps others). In addition, the Fellow will support the conducting of filmed oral history interviews of lawyers for the project as well as planning and assisting with a related course in spring 2023. Strong organizational skills, legal research skills, historical research skills, video filming, storytelling, and editing experience, and/or administrative experience are desired. The fellowship is a one-year full-time position. Presence in New Haven is required, preferably on a full-time basis, to begin sometime after graduation in May 2022, as some but not all of the work can be done remotely.
Living Civil Rights Law Project. This project involves the legal and institutional history of the U. S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section (“ELS”), the federal agency that had exclusive authority to prosecute cases involving a pattern or practice of employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from 1964 until 1974, when the ELS began to share that authority with the EEOC. Led by a visionary Section Chief, ELS lawyers worked tirelessly to desegregate the American workforce by race and sex, taking on structural discrimination in most major private sector industries and later in state and local governments throughout the country—and creating a transformative body of civil rights law in the process. ELS lawyers helped craft the concept of disparate impact in trial courts and defended it before the Supreme Court; they built pattern or practice litigation into a powerful tool for ferreting out discrimination; and they invented affirmative action remedies not simply to end institutional discrimination, but to address its lingering effects and to ensure ongoing compliance. Despite their accomplishments, much work remains to be done to secure the Civil Rights Act’s promise of equality.
In Spring 2022, Professor Schultz began teaching a new, hands-on Living Civil Rights Law seminar that has given students an opportunity to travel to interview, document, and research the pathbreaking work of the extraordinary ELS lawyers who breathed life into civil rights law—and to study the implications of their work on contemporary efforts to secure equality through law. The seminar offers students an opportunity to learn Title VII law and research the strategies, impacts, and contemporary implications of ELS cases; to interview pioneering civil rights lawyers and creatively tell their stories; and to join an intergenerational community of lawyers interested in advancing equal rights to decent work for all. Together, seminar participants analyze the role of this small, dedicated team at the DOJ in creating and transforming the law and the labor force through impact litigation. Planning is currently in progress for next year’s course.
Fellow’s Work to Support the Project. The Fellow will support all aspects of this project, including but not limited to the following tasks:
- Conduct interviews with lawyers and paralegals, under faculty supervision
- Help research and compose a syllabus and readings for the seminar
- Find and coordinate speakers for the spring course (lawyer, historian, video person, etc.)
- Write grant proposals for future iterations of the project
- Publicize the project through various media/social media/Yale/internal YLS sources
- Design posters for the project
- Contact lawyers to arrange interviews, make travel and meal and lodging arrangements for students and lawyers, etc.
- Coordinate dinners/meals for students and lawyers
- Work with IT staff to order video/audio equipment, mail it for interviews, when necessary, and get interviews online and transcribed
- Work with library staff to upload and organize the massive legal research for the project
- Coordinate and track FOIA requests for cases and documents from DOJ
- Post student assignments, papers, on Canvas for students
- Keep track of student work for grading and recommendation purposes
- Do legal research (lexis) and popular research (NY Times, Atlantic, etc.) when needed for syllabus or media interviews, etc.
- Maintain all research in databases
- Maintain all lawyer and other files for project in data sets
- Establish and maintain a website for the project (preserving access to confidential information)
- Help identify needed DOJ materials and coordinate NARA and/or FOIA requests for them
For the summer and 2022-2023 school year, the Fellow will continue to assist with the Living Civil Rights Project but will also assist with additional duties, as necessary, some of which follow:
Workplace Theory and Policy Workshop. The Fellow may also help coordinate and run the Workplace Theory and Policy Project. This is a speaker series which brings scholars and policymakers to YLS to present work in progress on issues relevant to labor, employment, and “work” broadly defined. Fellow duties will include such things as:
- Research topics and scholars and suggest ideas and speakers for the workshop
- Assemble schedule of speakers in good pedagogical and analytical order
- Make travel and lodging and meal arrangements for speakers
- Coordinate dinners/meals for students and speakers
- Assemble syllabus, e.g., readings for speakers and for bridge readings between units
- Select musical playlist to introduce speakers and provide theme music for the seminar
- Design posters for the seminar
- Select and purchase themed thank-you gifts for speakers
- Correspond with speakers about topics, schedule, class, etc.
- Keep track of student work for grading and recommendation purposes
- Post syllabus, readings, papers, musical playlist, etc. on Canvas
- Maintain a network of students for future projects
Additional Course(s) and Accompanying Film Series. The Fellow will also assist with researching and assembling substantive course readings and film selections for 2022-2023 courses. Courses may include Family Law and/or Work and Gender, both of which have an accompanying film series, Employment Discrimination, and/or Constitutional Law. Duties related to the coursework and film series will include such things as:
- Research, find and purchase/rent/borrow all films for showings
- Find streaming sources for films
- Arrange and show films in classroom (typically to start at 6:10 p.m.)
- Arrange for food for film showings
- Research, suggest, edit, and assemble substantive readings in good pedagogical and analytical order for syllabus
- Revise and post syllabus and readings on Canvas
The Fellow will also assist provide logistical and research support for the following additional projects:
Network of Public Interest Civil Rights & Employment Law Advocates.
- Help identify, select, and arrange Zoom and/or on-campus visits from public interest and/or plaintiff’s side labor/employment/civil rights lawyers in the public, private, and non-profit sectors to speak to students about career opportunities
- Work with YLS career services office and alumni to coordinate and publicize student events
- Assemble list of such places for YLS reference
- Disseminate information to interested students and alumni
Research and media/social media/publicity work generally.
- Maintain Sharepoint, Box, Dropbox, and similar databases and source lists for the above projects and several other works and projects in progress
- Conduct basic legal research and popular research, or work with law library staff to coordinate more extensive research, when needed for syllabus, media interviews, etc.
- Help maintain websites, resume, contacts, interviews, etc. for faculty
- Maintain project and affiliated faculty social media presence in scholarly/teaching areas of interest
- Respond to media requests, arrange interviews, etc. as necessary
- For example: Maintain UNLEASH EQUALITY website (Law Professors Against Sexual Harassment group co-founded by Professor Schultz), websites for Workplace Theory and Policy Workshop and Living Civil Rights Law Project, etc. and publicize events related to these organizations and projects
Requirements. Recent law school graduate preferred. *Highly qualified recent college graduates with experience and/or interest in law, legal history, and relevant project support will also be considered.
Full-time position. Work hours will need to track the needs of the project; overtime and weekend hours will be required, as necessary, to get the work done. Presence in New Haven required, preferably on a full-time basis, as some but not all work can be done remotely. The salary for this one-year position is $60,000, plus full Yale benefits. The position may be extended through the spring semester 2023.
Applicants who are interested in this position should send a cover letter with statement of interest and availability, current CV, and references to Professor Vicki Schultz at vicki.schultz@yale.edu with a cc to Research Assistant Chris Umanzor at chris.umanzor@yale.edu. The position is open until filled.
Yale University considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of, an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, or national or ethnic origin; nor does Yale discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
Yale Law School Robert M. Cover Clinical Fellowship in the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic
Yale Law School seeks applications for the Robert M. Cover Clinical Fellowship in the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC) of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, within Yale Law School’s clinical program. This is a two-year position, with a third-year option, beginning on or about July 1, 2022, designed for lawyers with at least three years of practice who are considering a career in law school teaching.
WIRAC is a year-long, in-house clinic whose students represent immigrants, workers, and their organizations in litigation under labor and employment, immigration, civil rights, and administrative laws; state and local legislative advocacy; and other non-litigation matters. Illustrative cases include:
- Class action habeas litigation challenging the prolonged immigration detention of noncitizens with certain criminal convictions;
- Class action litigation on behalf of immigrant youth challenging the termination of DACA;
- Representation in federal court under, inter alia, the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 of a noncitizen with disabilities who was mistreated while in ICE custody;
- Representation in immigration court, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and in federal court on behalf of individuals resisting removal;
- Representation in federal court and before the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities of a large group of workers in a Connecticut manufacturing facility on claims of wage theft and racial discrimination;
- Representation of a Connecticut interfaith organization in legislative advocacy to advance “clean slate” legislation to automatically expunge criminal records for residents returning from incarceration; and
- Representation of local labor unions and grassroots worker organizations in a wide range of strategies to enforce collective bargaining agreements, negotiate contracts, organize new workers, and protect the rights of union members under federal and state labor, employment, and health & safety laws.
The Fellow’s responsibilities include the representation of WIRAC clients, supervision of students, assistance in designing and teaching the weekly WIRAC seminar, and work on one’s own scholarship. In addition, the Fellow may be asked to co-teach a section of a seven-week fall program for first-year students, Introduction to Legal Analysis and Writing. Candidates must be prepared to apply for admission to the Connecticut bar. (Candidates may qualify for admission without examination.) All work will be conducted with the support of the clinical faculty, and will focus on providing legal assistance to low-income and civil rights clients and organizations. The principal supervisors for the position will be Professors Muneer Ahmad, Marisol Orihuela, and Michael Wishnie.
The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization is committed to building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. Candidates must be able to work both independently and as part of a team, and must possess strong written and oral communication skills. Experience in creative and community-driven advocacy is a strong plus. Annual salary is $75,000-80,000. Fellows receive health benefits and access to university facilities. Email a resume, cover letter, writing sample, law school transcript, and names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references by March 7, 2022 (early applications encouraged) to: Jesus Briones, Senior Administrative Assistant, jesus.briones@yale.edu. Questions may also be directed to Mr. Briones via email or by phone, (203) 432-4800.
Yale Law School Clinical Fellowship — Criminal Legal System Advocacy
Yale Law School seeks applications for a clinical fellowship in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, within Yale Law School’s clinical program. This is a two-year position, with a third-year option, beginning July 1, 2022, designed for lawyers with at least three years of practice who are considering a career in law school teaching.
The fellow will work across clinics focused on criminal legal system advocacy, including criminal defense, post-conviction, excessive sentencing, prison legal services, and policy advocacy. The fellow will also work on issues that intersect with the criminal legal system (e.g., immigration, mental health). Fellows’ responsibilities include representing clients, supervising students, assisting in teaching classes, and pursuing a scholarship agenda. In addition, the fellow may be asked to co-teach a section of a six-week fall program for first-year students, Introduction to Legal Analysis and Writing. Candidates must be prepared to apply for admission to the Connecticut bar. (Candidates with five years of practice experience may qualify for admission without examination.) All work will be conducted with the support of the clinical faculty, and will focus on providing legal assistance to low-income clients and organizations working on criminal legal reform and adjacent issues. The principal supervisors for the position will be Professors Fiona Doherty, Miriam Gohara, and Marisol Orihuela.
The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization is committed to building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. Candidates must be able to work both independently and as part of a team, and must possess strong written and oral communication skills. Experience in creative and community-driven advocacy is a strong plus. Annual salary is $75,000-80,000. Fellows receive health benefits and access to university facilities. Email a resume, cover letter, writing sample, law school transcript, and names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references by March 7, 2022 (early applications encouraged) to clinical.fellow@yale.edu. Questions may be directed to Deborah Tropiano at (203) 432-4800.
Yale University considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of, an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, or national or ethnic origin; nor does Yale discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from sex discrimination in educational programs and activities at institutions that receive federal financial assistance. Questions regarding Title IX may be referred to the University’s Title IX Coordinator, at TitleIX@yale.edu, or to the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 8th Floor, Five Post Office Square, Boston MA 02109-3921. Telephone: 617.289.0111, Fax: 617.289.0150, TDD: 800.877.8339, or Email: ocr.boston@ed.gov.