Employment Opportunities
Summer Clerkship and Semester Externship Programs
SELC hires law clerks during the school year and in the summer at all three of our core offices - Charlottesville, our regional headquarters and TN/VA office; Chapel Hill, our NC/SC office; and Atlanta, our GA/AL office – as well as our satellite offices in Asheville NC and Charleston SC.
Clerks can expect to do research and writing on issues for litigation or for other environmental advocacy in a substantive area. Depending on the project area, research may include federal and state environmental statutes and regulations, and procedural and evidentiary issues. In addition to doing research, clerks also participate in strategy sessions and other aspects of case or project management. Clerks may also be involved in meetings on environmental policy with government officials and leaders of other environmental groups. We hold periodic seminars to introduce the clerks to a wide range of environmental issues and projects. Other special events and outings, including a summer hike or canoe trip, are regularly held.
SELC believes that learning from actual experience is an important component of legal education. We strongly urge second- and third-year law students to take advantage of our semester-long externship programs. Once a student has been accepted into this program, we will work with the faculty of the sponsoring law school to plan the program and ensure that all requirements for credit are met.
Salaries and Accommodations for Summer Interns
Students must seek their own funding through federal work-study funds, student-funded fellowships, or similar programs. SELC considers a basic salary for first-year law students to be $400 per week and for second-year law students to be $500 per week from all sources. To the extent that outside funding falls short of the basic salary, SELC will supplement the salary, with a maximum total contribution from SELC of $2000 for first-year law students and $3600 for second-year law students based on a ten-week summer. We are happy to help students find housing at each of our office locations. We can provide local newspaper listings as well as information about university-run housing offices, as available.
Applications
Students should send their applications only to the office where they would prefer to work (GA, NC, VA) at the addresses indicated below. Applicants who wish to work in either our Asheville or Charleston satellite office should send applications to the Chapel Hill office and indicate the office she or he prefers. Students who wish to be considered by more than one office should send their applications to each of the preferred offices and note this information in the cover letter.
Deadlines for applications from second-year law students is October 15 for the following summer. Final decisions are made by the end of the year.
Send applications for the Charlottesville office to:
Carol Satterwhite
Southern Environmental Law Center
201 West Main Street, Suite 14
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Send applications for the Carolinas office to:
(for Chapel Hill, Asheville and Charleston)
Brienne McKay
Southern Environmental Law Center
200 West Franklin Street, Suite 330
Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2559
Send applications for the Atlanta office to:
Jessica McFadden
Southern Environmental Law Center
The Candler Building
127 Peachtree Street, 6th Floor
Suite 605
Atlanta, GA 30303-1840
