Law Job: Yale Law School Clinic Fellowship (Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic)

YALE LAW SCHOOL CLINICAL FELLOWSHIPS

in the

Ludwig Community and Economic Development Clinic;

Veterans Legal Services Clinic; and

Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic

Yale Law School seeks applications for three clinical fellowships in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, within Yale Law School’s clinical program. These Fellowships are two-year positions, beginning on or about July 1, 2020, designed for lawyers with at least two years of practice who are considering a career in law school teaching. Each fellow will work with a different clinic: Ludwig Community and Economic Development Clinic (CED); the Veterans Legal Services Clinic (VLSC); or the the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC). 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 and civil rights clients and organizations. 

The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization is committed to building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff to teach and work 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 $65,000-70,000. In addition, Fellows will receive health benefits and access to university facilities.  Email a resume, cover letter, writing sample, and names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references to Osikhena Awudu, Program Manager, The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, osikhena.awudu@yale.edu.  Please indicate the clinic or clinics to which you are applying. Applications will be accepted until February 28, 2020 but will be reviewed on a rolling basis (early applications encouraged).

More details about each fellowship follow below.

Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC)

WIRAC is a year-long, in-house clinic whose students represent immigrants, workers, and their organizations in litigation under labor and employment, immigration, Freedom of Information Act, § 1983, and other civil rights 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; litigation on behalf of DREAMers 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 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 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 principal supervisors for the position will be Professors Muneer Ahmad, Marisol Orihuela, and Michael Wishnie.

Veterans Legal Services Clinic (VLSC)

VLSC is a semester-long, in-house clinic whose students represent veterans and their organizations in disability compensation benefits, record correction, and civil rights litigation in administrative, state, and federal courts, and in state and federal policy advocacy and other non-litigation matters.  Illustrative cases include representation of individual veterans seeking disability compensation benefits for injuries incurred during military service, in initial applications, administrative appeals, and judicial review in federal court; former service members in applications to upgrade a less-than-honorable discharge before Defense Department boards and on judicial review in federal court; a proposed nation-wide class action challenging extreme delays in VA adjudication of administrative appeals and which resulted in a 2017 decision, Monk v. Wilkie, overturning nearly thirty years of precedent that had barred veterans from pursuing aggregate litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; a woman raped while a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in federal civil rights litigation against the former leadership of West Point; two certified, nation-wide class actions of Iraq and Afghanistan Era veterans who received less-than-fully-honorable discharges, despite having PTSD or related conditions attributable to their military service; a nation-wide class of U.S. Air Force veterans exposed to radiation after cleaning up two hydrogen bombs accidentally dropped on Spain in 1966, in the first appeals class action certified in the history of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Skaar v. Wilkie; and local and national veterans’ organizations in campaigns to address gender discrimination in congressional nominations to the military service academies; curb retaliation against service-members who report sexual harassment or assault; and make veterans with bad paper eligible for state veterans’ benefits.

The principal supervisor for the position will be Professor Michael Wishnie.

  

Ludwig Community & Economic Development Clinic (CED)

The Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development (CED) is a semester-long, in-house clinic which provides transactional legal services to clients seeking to promote economic opportunity and mobility. CED’s clients include affordable housing developers, community development financial institutions, farms and farmer’s markets, fair housing advocates, and neighborhood associations. CED’s legal services help our clients to expand access to financial services, bring arts institutions and grocery stores to chronically under-resourced communities, break down barriers to affordable housing development in high-opportunity communities, promote access to healthy foods, and facilitate entrepreneurship among low-income people.

On behalf of our clients, our students negotiate and draft contracts; provide advice on the tax consequences of deal structures and entity choices; structure and carry out real estate transactions; represent borrowers and lenders in financings; engage in legislative and regulatory advocacy; form for-profit and not-for-profit entities; and resolve land use and environmental issues. In addition to representing clients, students in their first semester of the clinic take a seminar which covers federal, state and local policies affecting urban and suburban places; substantive law in tax, real estate development, and corporate governance; and transactional and regulatory lawyering skills, such as negotiation and drafting contracts. 

The principal supervisor for the position will be Professor Anika Singh Lemar.

  

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.