Region 1: EPA New England
Honors Attorney Fellowship
Honors Attorney Fellowship 2012 Brochure (PDF) (2 pp, 498K, about
PDF)
Past Honors Attorney Fellowship Participants
"The EPA Honors Fellowship gave me the foundation that I needed to pursue a career in the environmental legal field. …I was able to work on projects with both local and national implications. EPA gave me a broader understanding of the environmental legal structure that I use in a more focused manner everyday in my current position."
Wendoly
Ortiz Langlois, Assistant Attorney General,
Massachusetts
Attorney General's Office,
Environmental Crimes Strike Force
Boston, Massachusetts
"EPA is an agency whose legal practice spans across so many different sectors and disciplines – from dry cleaners to power plants, from public health to economics. From the start, I was thrilled to be in a place that challenged my imagination. And within months, I knew I wanted to stay."
Jeanhee Hong
Office of Regional Counsel EPA Region
IX
San Francisco, California
"I found that the Honors Attorney Fellowship provided a terrific opportunity to develop as an attorney. I gained a great deal of substantive knowledge while working on matters ranging from Superfund enforcement actions to Clean Water Act regulatory matters. …I felt that as a Fellow, I was given much more responsibility than many of my peers in private firms, yet I could always rely on my supervisors and colleagues when I needed help."
Andrea Treece
Center for Biological Diversity
San Francisco, California
"My cases - permit appeals, enforcement actions, contaminated military base cleanups, environmental justice issues, and more - are my own. My colleagues, whose experience in environmental and administrative law is deep and broad, provide as much help and support as I need. My clients are biologists and engineers dedicated to protecting the environment and public health from pollution, and my opposing counsel are usually senior partners at major law firms. This is a good way to start a legal career! "
Ronald Fein
Assistant Regional Counsel, EPA – Region I, Boston,
Massachusetts
Applicant Qualifications
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's New England Office seeks applications for its Honors Attorney Fellowship only from U.S. citizens who are:
- law students at accredited law schools or joint degree programs, and
- current judicial clerks recently graduated from accredited law schools.
The Fellowship begins in September, and the Fellow is expected to commit to a two-year term. A new Fellow will be hired each year---thus two Fellows serve concurrently.
Fellowship Description
The US EPA New England Honors Attorney Fellowship is designed for applicants who are about to graduate from law school or complete a judicial clerkship. Applicants must have a strong interest in a career in environmental law or in the public sector and academic credentials, experience, and other attributes that demonstrate a significant potential for success.
- The Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for entry-level law students or clerks to join an office dedicated to protecting public health and the environment in New England. The Region offers new attorneys significant responsibility, the opportunity to handle a complex caseload that includes counseling and enforcement work, and extensive training and mentoring from colleagues with regionally and nationally recognized expertise.
- The Region has innovative initiatives addressing environmental justice, brownfields redevelopment, and urban environmental issues, as well as programs to protect our air, water, and land.
- The Region's legal offices offer a diverse, supportive, and family-friendly work environment. The salary and comprehensive benefits will ordinarily be at the GS-11 level (currently starting at $62,758) or, in exceptional circumstances, may be at the GS-12 level (currently starting at $75,222).
The U.S. EPA New England Offices of Regional Counsel and Environmental Stewardship
Attorneys
in the Offices of Regional Counsel and Environmental Stewardship
provide legal advice to the approximately 700 employees of EPA New
England, which is the regional office of the United States Environmental
Protection Agency serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The regional office works
with state, tribal, and local governments to implement
national environmental law. The Honors Attorney Fellow is a member
of the Office of Regional Counsel but will also undertake
approximately half of his/her work assignments in the Office of
Environmental Stewardship.
Examples of the type of work performed by lawyers in the Office of Regional Counsel include counseling to EPA staff on implementing programs under the major federal environmental statutes, advice to states on the adequacy of state environmental laws to support program authorization by EPA, and counseling on matters involving ethics, civil rights, personnel, and contracts. The work requires the interpretation of statutes and regulations in the context of environmental policy development. The Office of Regional Counsel employs about thirteen lawyers as well as support staff.
Lawyers in the Office of Environmental Stewardship handle civil
and criminal enforcement cases which the EPA brings against
individuals, corporations, and governmental entities. Cases may
proceed administratively or be referred to the Department of
Justice
and be heard in United States District Court. Enforcement attorneys
work closely with EPA inspectors, scientists, and engineers.
The
Office of Environmental Stewardship includes approximately thirty-five
attorneys, as well as inspectors and support staff.
Honors Attorney Fellowship 2012 Brochure (PDF) (2 pp, 498K, about pdf)
EPA is an equal opportunity employer. Selection for this position will be based solely on merit without regard to race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, political affiliation, disability, sexual orientation, marital or family status or other differences. EPA encourages people of color to apply.