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Top 3 Cool Legal Jobs This Week: Hug the Trees, Save the Whales

By Jonathan R. Tung, Esq. on April 22, 2016 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

As the bulk of world leaders convene today at the United Nations to sign broad and sweeping climate reforms agreed to last year, global climate change and the environment are back on the minds of the public. The final hammering out of the "Paris Agreement" talks will likely be remembered as a highlight in President Obama's career.

New environmental policies are not only shaping the future of business, they're also opening doors in the legal job market. Here are three cool legal jobs this week for the tree huggers and whale savers.

Earthjustice Headquarters: Staff Attorney, Clean Energy

If you live in the Bay Area and love everything green, then you should apply to Earthjustice -- because the earth needs a good lawyer. If you get accepted to join the Earthjustice team, you'll be expected to work rather autonomously to litigate cases from start to finish -- and also guide and supervise associate attorneys. Your mission will be to push the Earthjustice message of cleaner energy, greater reliance on renewables, reduction of dirty energy sources, and protection of public health. Go forth, noble sirs.

Colarado Dept. of Law: Deputy Attorney General, Natural Resources and Environment Section

We can't help but chuckle a little that the Colorado Department of Law has to include the sentence, "Exceptional written and oral communication skills are necessary, as well as strong leadership and management skills," in its description. Considering how important the Natural Resources and Environment Section is, we should hope "exceptional communication skills" would go without saying! We know it goes without saying that this job offers many interesting goodies, including lovely 401k and 427 plans, paid life insurance, paid sick-leave and of course, Colorado's fine weather. The section sports 48 attorneys, 8 legal assistants, 3 legal assistants, and the office manager. The only catch is that you'll have to have 10 years' of environmental litigation experience under your belt, so this one is pretty specialized.

If you haven't quite managed to get a hold of your law license yet, then maybe pad your experience in environmental law with this legal assistant gig with the Sierra Club. Actually, despite the somewhat broad language initially used to describe the Environmental Law Program, this looks to be a great opportunity to get some real hands on experience with courtroom procedure. We'll skip over the usual requirements of "organized" and "team player." The real meat of this job will be your helping lawyers file docs with the court, interviewing declarants, drafting documents, and submitting FOIA requests. That's one heck of an internship. If you're still in school and want environmental law experience, we recommend you to jump on this.

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