The Coal Program uses hard-hitting litigation and administrative advocacy to work to end our nation’s reliance on dirty, expensive, and outdated coal-fired power, to challenge a growing rush by the utility industry to build new gas-fired power plants, and to transform our country’s energy sector into one that is clean, renewable, and modern. Our docket includes litigation to secure, defend, and strengthen stringent environmental standards for power plants, lawsuits challenging government or industry failure to implement such standards, and challenges to utility proposals to spend hundreds of millions of dollars or more on aging coal plants rather than investing in clean energy. For more information about the Coal Program, please visit http://earthjustice.org/about/offices/coal .

Coal Program managers, attorneys, and professional staff also work closely with Earthjustice’s Clean Energy Program, which litigates in state and federal forums to advance a swift and equitable transition to 100% clean energy.  For more information about the Clean Energy Program, please visit https://earthjustice.org/about/offices/clean-energy .

Responsibilities

Management (approximately 60-70%)

• Assist the Managing Attorney, other Deputies, and Director in developing program direction and strategy.
• Serve as direct supervisor of up to seven attorneys and professional staff.
• Ensure direct reports with supervisory responsibility are properly executing those functions.
• Collaborate with Program managers, supervisors, and direct reports to manage relationships and workloads across the program.
• Work with the Program’s leadership to recruit, evaluate, and hire qualified candidates for open positions.
• Work with the Managing Attorney, other Deputies, and Director to oversee budgeting and other financial matters.
• Work with Legal Practice staff and Regional office staff to implement internal operational policies and procedures.
• Assist direct reports in career advancement by identifying and encouraging appropriate training and professional development opportunities, and creating a development plan with each direct report.
• Advance a learning culture by providing direct reports with consistent performance feedback – both positive and constructive, acting as a coach and mentor, and ensuring that case teams are debriefing after completion of significant stages of projects.
• Help ensure the advancement of Earthjustice’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and values.
• Create a respectful and inclusive work environment for the team, and model respectful and inclusive behavior. Promptly address micro-aggressions, implicit biases, and other equity or inclusion concerns brought to their attention.
• Resolve interpersonal conflict among team members and bring in outside facilitators as needed.
• Communicate regularly with the team and encourage staff to raise concerns and to provide ongoing feedback.
• Facilitate staff engagement with one another to strengthen teamwork, interaction and collaboration. Create or identify strategic opportunities for team building.
• Value and uplift individual differences and talents to improve employee satisfaction and the quality of collective work. Celebrate successes and help team members understand and manage setbacks.
• Understand teams’ strengths and areas for development.

Litigation (approximately 30-40%)

• Develop and lead the Program’s environmental, regulatory, and administrative work seeking to ensure the safe and effective clean-up of coal ash pollution and to minimize the impacts of fossil-fueled power generation on the health and well-being of local communities.
• Develop and litigate cases under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act, and/or the Clean Air Act and other relevant state and federal environmental laws from beginning to end, performing all aspects of litigation including written discovery, depositions, and potentially trials.
• Cultivate new and diverse allies and coalition partners in support of our program goals, and advance our efforts to ensure that social justice considerations inform every aspect of our work.
• Collaborate and manage relationships with co-counsel, clients, and coalition partners.
• Serve as spokesperson for Earthjustice, clients, and partners.
• Work effectively with other departments within Earthjustice, including Communications, Development, and Policy and Legislation.