Legislative Director for Courts, Justice, & Administrative Law

Founded in 1971, Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization, taking on the biggest, most precedent-setting cases across the country. Partnering with thousands of groups, supporters, individuals, and communities, Earthjustice uses the power of the law to protect people’s health, preserve places and wildlife, advance clean energy, and combat climate change. Headquartered in San Francisco, Earthjustice maintains offices nationwide and has a distinguished record of achieving significant, lasting environmental protections through litigation and advocacy.

Earthjustice seeks a seasoned Legislative Director for Courts, Justice, & Administrative Law to lead its federal legislative and administrative advocacy related to court integrity, the justice system, and administrative law. Reporting to the Vice President of Policy and Legislation (PAL), this role provides strategic leadership, direct lobbying, coalition engagement, and team management within Earthjustice’s PAL division. This senior, externally facing leadership position, represents Earthjustice before Congress, the Administration, coalition partners, media, and the public. Moreover, this role will oversee a small team and collaborate closely with litigators, other Legislative Directors and organizational leadership to advance the mission of Earthjustice.

Responsibilities

Legislative Strategy and Implementation
• Shapes and implements federal legislative and administrative advocacy strategies related to court integrity, justice system reform, and administrative law.
• Directly lobbies Members of Congress and Administration officials.
• Educates policymakers on legal developments, court rulings, and regulatory impacts.
• Within the PAL team, recommends organizational positions on policy, legislation, and presidential nominees for judicial and agency appointments.
• Develops, maintains, and builds trusted relationships with senior staff of key Congressional and Administration decision-makers, including relevant Congressional Committees.
• Develops and oversees advocacy and educational materials for stakeholders and decision makers.
• Plans and oversees key advocacy events such as briefings, lobby days and fly-ins to educate decision makers.
• Proactively seeks opportunities for Earthjustice to advance policies in the federal legislative and regulatory arenas.

Coalition Building and External Engagement
• Maintains an active leadership presence within the D.C. environmental and justice policy community, representing Earthjustice in coalitions and with partners.
• Serves as a key spokesperson on issues of court integrity, justice system and administrative law issues, while supporting Earthjustice’s media and public engagement.
• Creates opportunities for partners and allies to engage, educate and advocate on issues of court integrity, justice system, and administrative law to garner media, Hill and Administration attention.

Internal Coordination & Management
• Coordinates with litigation, policy, and communications leadership within Earthjustice to develop and implement department-wide advocacy and efficiency strategies.
• Participates in strategic planning, budgeting, and fundraising support.
• Leads, mentors, and supervises staff (currently two direct reports)
• Fosters an inclusive, collaborative team culture.
• Serves as a liaison with Vice Presidents of Litigation, relevant Practice/Working Group chairs, litigators as well as PAL and National Communications Strategists.

Supervision
• Cultivate and lead a cohesive and supportive policy team around court integrity, justice system, and administrative law issues.
• Occasionally substitute for V.P. of PAL when the V.P. is unavailable.
• Hire and supervise PAL staff on the Courts, Justice & Administrative Law team and foster coordination and collaboration with PAL staff whose work intersects with the work of your team.
• Provide advocacy coaching, mentoring and regular feedback to direct reports.
• Foster a transparent and inclusive culture within your team and PAL.
• Supervise projects and other efforts performed on assigned issues by Legislative Assistants, Interns, or contractors.

Management
• Recruits and hires qualified candidates who fit position requirements and the work environment.
• Promotes change in terms of the expected benefits, as well as removing or lowering the impact of potential obstacles.
• Sets clear team direction that aligns with Earthjustice strategy, mission, and vision.
• Develops staff by identifying and encouraging training and professional development opportunities appropriate to role and creating development plans for all staff.
• Provides staff with consistent performance feedback — both positive and constructive — and acts as a coach and mentor.
• Creates a learning culture, by encouraging debriefing after completion of significant stages of projects.
• Resolves interpersonal conflict among team members and brings in outside facilitators as needed.
• Communicates regularly with existing employees and encourages staff to raise concerns and to provide ongoing feedback.
• Creates or identifies strategic opportunities for team building and individual and overall staff engagement with one another to strengthen teamwork, interaction, and collaboration.
• Values and uses individual differences and talents to improve employee satisfaction and the quality of collective work.
• Celebrates successes and helps team members to understand and manage setbacks.

Qualifications

This role requires a proactive, mission-driven leader with significant cross-partisan “political fluency,” social intelligence, and a strong desire to make progress on critical policy issues. The successful candidate will be highly collaborative, empathetic, pragmatic, and detail-oriented and thrive in a team environment while also possessing:

• Eight years of combined federal legislative and administrative advocacy experience
• Some experience with U.S. environmental law.
• Strong communication, leadership, relationship and coalition-building skills.
• Ability to mentor, coach, and develop others with excellent communication skills.
• Flexible and agile with strong organizational skills
• Experience working with traditional and social media.

Education:
J.D. highly preferred

Travel:
Approximately 5-10%.

Salary & Benefits

Base salary range: $168,900 – $187,700 plus comprehensive benefits package.

Location:
This is a hybrid position based in Washington, D.C. with a minimum of two days per week in the office.