[Hiring] Defending Defenders Law Intern @ELAW

Role Description

The ELAW internship with the Defenders team involves communication in English or Spanish. Spanish or French as a first language or proficiency is a welcome asset.

Over the course of your internship, you will:

• Conduct legal research and draft memos on a wide range of law, legal doctrines and mechanisms focused on protecting environmental defenders and protecting the rights of communities to engage.
• Analyze and summarize innovative laws, legal trends, and court decisions.
• Assist with drafting briefs, regulatory analyses, or resource updates.
• Participate as a collaborative member of a legal team that supports interns through meaningful mentorship.
• Observe strategic and information gathering meetings with local lawyer partners.
• Contribute directly to global legal efforts defending environmental defenders.

Recent intern projects have included:

• Research on legal issues relevant to responding to the criminalization of defenders, including through strategic lawsuits against public participations (SLAPPs).
• Drafting submissions to international bodies and domestic courts, including on topics related to the protection of civil society organizations from authoritarian governments.
• Compiling research on the corporations driving the criminalization of defenders.

Qualifications

• Open to current second-year (2L) students enrolled in a Juris Doctor (J.D.) program or in their second year of an equivalent graduate-level legal education.
• Current students enrolled in a Master of Laws (LL.M.) program are also eligible.
• International applicants with equivalent legal education are welcome to apply.

Requirements

• Deeply committed to public interest law, environmental justice, and human rights.
• Curious, meticulous researchers who write clearly and think critically.
• Collaborative and communicative, but self-directed in managing time and projects.
• Adaptable and open-minded, eager to learn across legal systems and cultures.
• Multilingual or bring lived experience from frontline or underrepresented communities (preferred but not required).

Benefits

• Compensation at a rate of $17.50 per hour for 10 weeks of full-time work (up to $7,000 total).
• Opportunity to gain invaluable experience, mentorship, and global exposure.
• Build supportive, lasting connections with ELAW attorneys.
• Your work contributes to legal tools to better protect those defending the environment.

Company Description

Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) is an international NGO, registered in Oregon as a nonprofit. At ELAW, we believe that environmental protection and human rights are inseparable—and that the best solutions come from those closest to the problem. That’s why we support a global network of public interest lawyers and scientists in 80+ countries working to protect communities and ecosystems through law.

The Defenders legal team provides behind-the-scenes research, litigation support, strategic support and resources to defend the grassroots lawyers fighting extractive industries, climate injustice, plastic pollution, environmental injustice, and more.