Law Clerk Program

The Alaska Regional Office’s docket is focused on protecting the Alaska coastal rainforest, safeguarding America’s Arctic, and conserving the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska marine ecosystem. Our work also includes wildlife conservation, protection of lands and waters from mining activities, air and water quality enforcement, and national park and other public lands management. Our clients include national, regional, and local conservation organizations; Alaska Native tribal organizations; Alaskan communities; ecotourism businesses; and other organizations concerned about enforcing the laws to protect the environment. Both locations of the Alaska Office — Juneau and Anchorage — offer breathtaking scenery and outstanding access to wilderness and recreational opportunities. The long daylight hours make summer the ideal time to experience and appreciate Alaska.

Learn more about the Alaska Regional Office's work.

The Biodiversity Defense Program fights to reshape our relationship to lands, water, and wildlife everywhere by confronting the major drivers of the decline in nature, including habitat destruction and over-exploitation of wildlife. The Program’s work brings Earthjustice’s strategic, collaborative, and hard-hitting approach to environmental protection into new geographies. Additionally, we advance policies aimed at protecting habitat critical to the survival of species, such as a national plan to permanently protect America’s carbon-dense and biodiverse old-growth forests.

Learn more about the Biodiversity Defense Program.

Earthjustice’s California Regional Office works to promote clean energy and zero emission transportation policies; to rein in oil and gas extraction, particularly in locations that threaten frontline communities; to protect state residents and sensitive ecosystems from pesticides and other toxic substances; to preserve California’s lands and rich biodiversity; and to improve air quality statewide. Our attorneys bring lawsuits and pursue administrative advocacy to protect the environment and promote environmental justice under a mix of federal environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, as well as California statutes. The California Regional Office is seeking law clerks for summer 2025 to work alongside our attorneys and advocates in our San Francisco and Los Angeles offices.

Please note in your cover letter if you would prefer one of the two offices or are interested in both.

Learn more about the California Office's work.

The Clean Energy Program works to accelerate the essential transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, to hold coal generators accountable for their pollution and protect communities from toxic coal waste, and to increase access to clean energy. The Clean Energy Program is deeply invested in fighting false climate solutions and opposing the dangerous rush to expand or prolong the life of gas generation and infrastructure in our state and federal energy regulatory advocacy. Our focus is the “fossil-to-clean fight” and ensuring that all communities benefit equitably from a clean energy transition.

Learn more about the Clean Energy Program's work.

We work hand-in-hand with frontline communities to remove environmental hazards and secure access to environmental benefits. We act collectively with our community partners to challenge harmful social and political structures, and to improve the environmental conditions in neighborhoods. We support community-led movements using a full range of advocacy strategies to challenge the status quo. We represent frontline communities across the country to challenge polluters that harm health, safety, and quality of life; to close dangerous regulatory loopholes; to open access to information and records; to increase transparency into environmental decision-making and polluting operations; and to enforce federal, state, and local laws meant to protect communities from environmental harms.

Learn more about the Community Partnerships Program

With approximately 700 springs, more than 1,260 miles of coastline (more than any other state in the continental United States), over 7,000 lakes and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams, water is the lifeblood of Florida. In 2023 alone, over 141 million people visited Florida to enjoy its beaches, fishing, attractions, and natural areas. But its beauty has also invited its exploitation and pollution by industry and development. That’s why for the last 25 years, Earthjustice has fought in federal, state, and administrative courts to protect Florida’s waters and wild places for all people to enjoy. The Florida Regional Office fights for public ownership and access to Florida’s waters, defends the public’s right to enjoy Florida’s beautiful places, stands with communities threatened by pollution, protects the Everglades, preserves wild lands and species, works to clean up our waterways and hold polluters accountable, and aims to move Florida to a clean energy future.

Learn more about the Florida Office's work.

At a time when we desperately need to reduce greenhouse emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, the oil and gas industry is aggressively expanding fossil fuel infrastructure, locking us into decades of future fossil fuel use and directly harming the communities already hardest hit by climate disruption. Earthjustice’s Fossil Fuels Program is confronting this massive build-out. We use litigation, administrative advocacy, and partnership to advance an end to U.S. oil and gas extraction and production, and stop new infrastructure (e.g., petrochemical facilities, export terminals and pipelines), focused on the U.S. Gulf Region and Appalachia.

Learn more about the Fossil Fuels Program.

Earthjustice’s Gulf Regional Office is building a team to support frontline communities as they work to protect the health and iconic ecosystems of the Gulf from fossil’s last-ditch effort to pollute our homes and wreck our climate. Based in Houston, Texas, our Gulf Regional Office is working to deepen regional partnerships and build power to defend ecosystems, protect communities from toxic pollution, and stop large scale fossil fuel expansion at its source. The Gulf Regional Office covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and can accommodate remote clerks in any of those three states.

Learn more about the Gulf Office's work.

Drawing on deep experience in foreign, U.S., and international environmental, energy, and human rights law, and foreign and international litigation, Earthjustice’s International Program works with partners in Africa, Indonesia, Australia, Latin America, and elsewhere on domestic and international legal advocacy to reduce dependence on dirty fossil fuels and speed the transition to clean energy. International Program staff represent and collaborate with public interest environmental organizations and communities to establish, strengthen, and enforce national and international legal protections for the environment and public health.

Learn more about the International Program's work.

Earthjustice opened an office in Honolulu in 1988 to protect natural and cultural resources throughout Hawaiʻi and the larger Pacific region. Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Regional Office has led campaigns to restore stream flows to communities and watersheds across the islands, protect Hawaiʻi's imperiled species from harmful activities, hold the military and other government actors accountable for pollution, and transition the economy off fossil fuels and onto the clean energy grid of the future. Our attorneys file suit under national laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, and state laws such as the Hawaiʻi Environmental Policy Act. The Office also has a long history of enforcing environmental rights and traditional and customary Native Hawaiian rights that are enshrined in the Hawaiʻi State Constitution.

The Mid-Pacific Regional Office is looking for summer law clerks who have excellent research, writing, and oral advocacy skills; solid academic records; demonstrated commitment to the environment, community empowerment, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; the ability to be a team player; and a strong work ethic, sense of initiative, and sound judgment. A sense of humor is also desired.

Learn more about the Mid-Pacific Office's work.

The Midwest Office’s legal advocacy and litigation spans all three of Earthjustice’s program areas — healthy communities, climate and energy, and lands and wildlife. We fight proposed mines and pipeline projects that threaten the fishing and hunting rights of tribal communities and endanger the region’s treasures, including the Great Lakes and the pristine Boundary Waters. Second, we work with communities impacted by contaminated air, drinking water, waterways, and soil to fight for environmental justice and to develop safer and cleaner neighborhoods in which to live. Third, we are developing work that will promote healthier, more sustainable agriculture and combat climate change.

Learn more about the Midwest Office's work.

The staff of the Northeast Regional Program's work to address the serious health and environmental threats associated with climate change, toxic chemicals, and other sources of pollution. The Northeast Regional Program partakes in efforts to ensure that New York state and local authorities faithfully implement innovative new environmental laws including the 2022 Environmental Rights Amendment and the landmark 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. In addition, we fight to protect drinking and surface waters from pollutants including PFAS in Cayuga Lake and cyanotoxins in Owasco Lake through administrative advocacy and state and federal litigation. The Northeast Office approaches many of its cases and projects with an environmental justice lens working with partners in frontline communities to help ensure that some of the most vulnerable residents in our region are no longer disproportionately burdened by pollution of their air and water.

Learn more about the Northeast Office's work.

The Northern Rockies Regional Office is engaged in litigation focused on protecting and preserving the iconic wildlife species and wild lands of this incomparable region; challenging fossil fuel extraction and burning that contributes to climate change and pollution of our air and water; and advocating for environmental interests held by Native American communities and organizations. We have played a leading and long-standing role as the last line of defense for the ecosystems encompassing Yellowstone and Glacier national parks; ensuring fair opportunities for development of renewable energy sources; opposing oil and gas exploration on public national forest lands of extreme cultural and spiritual importance to the Blackfeet people; and more.

Learn more about the Northern Rockies Office's work.

The Northwest Office opened in 1987 to enable Earthjustice to take a more active role in preserving the unique natural resources and environment of the Pacific Northwest. Since that time, the Northwest office has undertaken campaigns to protect old-growth forests, promote salmon recovery, improve air and water quality, protect Puget Sound and the communities that depend on it, stop fossil-fuel infrastructure projects, protect farmworkers and their families from pesticides, ensure a just transition to a clean energy future, and respond to climate change, among other things. Although the primary focus of the Northwest office is representing environmental and community groups in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, we often take cases with national and international scope.

Learn more about the Northwest Office's work.

Earthjustice’s Oceans Program works to protect oceans and ocean wildlife from threats such as overfishing, oil and gas drilling, and habitat degradation. Our team currently consists of 10 full-time attorneys and a litigation paralegal. We litigate cases primarily in federal court and advocate to protect ocean resources in the United States. We also work to protect marine ecosystems and vulnerable species outside our borders by strengthening international provisions in U.S. fisheries management laws and in partnerships with advocates across the globe. Summer clerks will work on a mix of international and domestic ocean matters.

Learn more about the Oceans Program's work.

Puerto Rico continues to suffer the consequences of a centralized, aging fossil-fuel system that jeopardizes the health and safety of its residents, who at the same time face the brutal consequences of more frequent and intensified hurricanes, wildfires, and floods due to climate change. But it doesn’t have to be this way. That’s why Earthjustice’s Puerto Rico team is working on behalf of environmental, labor, and civil society groups to accelerate the transition away from dirty fossil fuels in favor of a distributed renewable energy system that ensures access to clean energy and a brighter future for all Puerto Ricans.

The Rocky Mountain Office’s (RMO) work focuses on Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, and its cases primarily involve (1) protecting public lands and wildlife from fracking, mining, and other threats; (2) quickly shifting Colorado and nearby states from dirty to clean energy, and away from fossil fuel combustion in transportation, buildings, and industry; and (3) protecting urban and rural communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution and other environmental harms. As a summer clerk, you’ll conduct legal and factual research, draft memoranda and court pleadings, and assist attorneys with other tasks like client interactions, oral argument preparation, and more. The RMO coordinates summer events to ensure our clerks form professional connections within the office and the larger public-interest legal community. We welcome applicants who, in addition to demonstrating core legal research, writing, and advocacy skills, have a demonstrated interest in and capacity for deploying emotional intelligence and cultural competency in their work.

Learn more about the Rocky Mountain Office's work.

Earthjustice’s Sustainable Food and Farming Program engages in litigation and advocacy to improve our nation’s food system, from crop selection and farming practices to food processing and sustainability. Working in partnership with communities, advocacy groups, scientists, and others, we fight for safe and healthy food, climate-friendly farming, reduced reliance on dangerous pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and animal farms — not animal factories. We take on cases with regional and national scope.

Learn more about the Sustainable Food and Farming Program.

Earthjustice’s Toxic Exposure & Health Program litigates in federal court and conducts administrative and legislative advocacy to ensure that all people have safe workplaces, neighborhoods, and schools; have access to safe drinking water and food; and live in homes that are free of hazardous chemicals. We partner with and represent groups that face the greatest exposure to and risks from hazardous chemicals, including the communities surrounding the facilities where those chemicals are manufactured, used, and released.

Learn more about the Toxic Exposure and Health Program.

The Tribal Partnerships Program works across Earthjustice’s regional offices and programs to develop cross-cutting strategies on behalf of our tribal and Indigenous partners and to provide added capacity and expertise to work on matters of concern to tribes and Indigenous communities. Tribal Partnerships attorneys litigate cases, collaborate and consult with program and regional office attorneys, conduct outreach with Indigenous communities, and work with Earthjustice’s other teams as needed.

Learn more about the Tribal Partnership Program.

Earthjustice’s Washington D.C. Regional Program works to protect community health and the environment from pollution. We use litigation, administrative advocacy, and partnership to advocate for more-protective national air quality standards, national safeguards against hazardous air pollutants, prevention of chemical disasters at industrial facilities, clean waterways, climate protection, and more — all with an eye toward advancing equity and justice.

Learn more about the Washington, D.C., Office's work.