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Yale Law School Fellowship for Living Civil Rights Law Project and Beyond

Employer
Yale Law School
Location
Connecticut, United States
Salary
$50,000.00 - $60,000.00
Date posted
Dec 22, 2021

View more

Position Type
Faculty Positions, Professional Fields, Law & Legal Studies
Employment Level
Fellowship
Employment Type
Full Time

Yale Law School Fellowship for Living Civil Rights Law Project and Beyond

 

Yale Law School is looking to immediately hire a recent law school graduate* as a fellow to work on various projects, focusing first and foremost on a spring 2022 course and ongoing project entitled Living Civil Rights Law headed by Ford Foundation Professor of Law Vicki Schultz. The fellow will be responsible for both logistical support and legal research for a variety of ongoing tasks. Strong organizational skills, historical and legal research skills, and/or administrative experience are desired. The fellowship is a one-year full-time position.

 

Living Civil Rights Law Project. This project involves the legal history of the U. S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section (“ELS”), the federal agency that had exclusive authority to prosecute cases involving a pattern or practice of employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from 1964 until 1974, when the ELS began to share that authority with the EEOC. Led by a visionary Section Chief, ELS lawyers worked tirelessly to racially integrate the American workforce, taking on structural discrimination in most major private sector industries and later in state and local governments throughout the country, creating a transformative body of civil rights law in the process. ELS lawyers helped craft the concept of disparate impact in trial courts and defended it before the Supreme Court; they built pattern or practice litigation into a powerful tool for ferreting out discrimination; and they invented affirmative action remedies not simply to end institutional discrimination, but to address its lingering effects and to ensure ongoing compliance. Despite their accomplishments, much work remains to be done to secure Title VII’s promise of equality in employment.

 

In Spring 2022, Professor Schultz will teach a new, hands-on Living Civil Rights Law seminar that will give students an opportunity to travel to interview, document, and research the pathbreaking work of the extraordinary ELS lawyers who breathed life into civil rights law—and to study the implications of their work on contemporary efforts to secure equality through law.  The seminar will offer students an opportunity to learn Title VII law and research the strategies, impacts, and contemporary implications of ELS cases; to interview pioneering civil rights lawyers and creatively tell their stories; and to join an intergenerational community of lawyers interested in advancing equal rights to decent work for all. Together, seminar participants will analyze the role of this small, dedicated team at the DOJ in creating and transforming the law and the labor force through impact litigation.

 

All students will interview at least one lawyer, and research relevant ELS and other caselaw and write short papers to share with the class. Students who wish to publish final papers may work closely with the Professor to craft timely topics; online publication options may be explored. Some students may wish to produce professionally edited, final video interviews of the lawyers, like those produced for the Eyes on the Prize documentary series. Students are encouraged to document and disseminate information about the Section’s work and legacy through other creative means, e.g., through blogs, podcasts, and other media.

 

After the spring seminar concludes, the work for the historical project will continue.

 

Fellow’s Work to Support the Project. The Fellow will support all aspects of this project, including but not limited to the following tasks:

  • Help research and compose a syllabus and readings for the seminar
  • Find and coordinate speakers for the spring course (lawyer, historian, video person, etc.)
  • Write grant proposals for future iterations of the project
  • Publicize the project through various media/social media/Yale/internal YLS sources
  • Design posters for the project
  • Contact lawyers to arrange interviews, make travel and meal and lodging arrangements for students and lawyers, etc.
  • Coordinate dinners/meals for students and lawyers
  • Work with IT staff to order video/audio equipment, mail it for interviews, when necessary, and get interviews online and transcribed
  • Work with library staff to upload and organize the massive legal research for the project
  • Coordinate and track FOIA requests for cases and documents from DOJ
  • Post student assignments, papers, on Canvas for students
  • Keep track of student work for grading and recommendation purposes
  • Do legal research (lexis) and popular research (NY Times, Atlantic, etc.) when needed for syllabus or media interviews, etc.
  • Maintain all research in databases
  • Maintain all lawyer and other files for project in data sets
  • Establish and maintain a website for the project (preserving access to confidential information)
  • Help identify needed DOJ materials and coordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for them

 

For the 2022-2023 school year, the Fellow will continue to assist with the Living Civil Rights Project but will also assist with additional duties, as necessary, some of which follow: 

 

Workplace Theory and Policy Workshop. The Fellow will help coordinate and run the Workplace Theory and Policy Project. This is a speaker series which brings scholars and policymakers to YLS to present work in progress on issues relevant to labor, employment, and “work” broadly defined. Fellow duties will include such things as:

 

  • Research topics and scholars and suggest ideas and speakers for the workshop
  • Assemble schedule of speakers in good pedagogical and analytical order
  • Make travel and lodging and meal arrangements for speakers
  • Coordinate dinners/meals for students and speakers
  • Assemble syllabus, e.g., readings for speakers and for bridge readings between units
  • Select musical playlist to introduce speakers and provide theme music for the seminar
  • Design posters for the seminar
  • Select and purchase themed thank-you gifts for speakers
  • Correspond with speakers about topics, schedule, class, etc.
  • Keep track of student work for grading and recommendation purposes
  • Post syllabus, readings, papers, musical playlist, etc. on Canvas
  • Maintain a network of students for future projects

 

Additional Course(s) and Accompanying Film Series. The Fellow will also assist with researching and assembling substantive course readings and film selections for 2022-2023 courses. Courses may include Family Law and/or Work and Gender, both of which have an accompanying film series, Employment Discrimination, and/or Constitutional Law.  Duties related to the coursework and film series will include such things as:

  • Research, find and purchase/rent/borrow all films for showings
  • Find streaming sources for films
  • Arrange and show films in classroom (typically to start at 6:10 p.m.)
  • Arrange for food for film showings
  • Research, suggest, edit, and assemble substantive readings in good pedagogical and analytical order for syllabus
  • Revise and post syllabus and readings on Canvas

 

The Fellow will also assist provide logistical and research support for the following additional projects:

 

Network of Public Interest Civil Rights & Employment Law Advocates.

  • Help identify, select, and arrange Zoom and/or on-campus visits from public interest and/or plaintiff’s side labor/employment/civil rights lawyers in the public, private, and non-profit sectors to speak to students about career opportunities
  • Work with YLS career services office and alumns to coordinate and publicize student events
  • Assemble list of such places for YLS reference
  • Disseminate information to interested students and alumns

 

Research and media/social media/publicity work generally.

  • Maintain Sharepoint, Box, Dropbox, and similar databases and source lists for the above projects and several other works and projects in progress
  • Conduct basic legal research and popular research, or work with law library staff to coordinate more extensive research, when needed for syllabus, media interviews, etc.
  • Help maintain websites, resume, contacts, interviews, etc. for faculty
  • Maintain project and affiliated faculty social media presence in scholarly/teaching areas of interest
  • Respond to media requests, arrange interviews, etc. as necessary
  • For example: Maintain UNLEASH EQUALITY website (Law Professors Against Sexual Harassment group co-founded by Professor Schultz), websites for Workplace Theory and Policy Workshop and Living Civil Rights Law Project, etc. and publicize events related to these organizations and projects

 

 

 

Requirements. Recent law school graduate preferred. *Highly qualified recent college graduates with experience and/or interest in law, legal history, and relevant project support will also be considered.

 

Full-time position. Work hours will need to track class and event times; overtime and weekend hours will be required, as necessary, to get the work done.  Some but not all work can be remote. The salary for this one-year position is $60,000, plus full Yale benefits.  The position may be extended through the spring semester 2023.

 

Applicants who are interested in this position should send a cover letter and current CV to Professor Vicki Schultz at vicki.schultz@yale.edu with a cc to Research Assistant Alex.Fay@Yale.edu. The position is open until filled.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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