Externally Funded Fellowship - Criminal Justice Project at Lawyers' Committee C

Job Title: Fellow

Location: Washington, DC

Job Type: Term

Union Affiliation: Union

Accountable to: Director, Criminal Justice Project

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law established its Criminal Justice Project (CJP) to challenge racial disparities within the criminal justice system that result from the criminalization of poverty and contribute to mass incarceration. Hate incidents across the United States are surging, devastating individuals and entire communities. Hundreds of organizations in communities across the country work to combat hate every day.

To help combat this increase and support those organizations, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law launched the James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate. Our fellows become involved with substantive legal activities, which involve co-counseled litigation with prominent law firms, including client contact, case investigation, discovery, negotiations, amicus briefs, appeals, and trial practice. Non-litigation activities include legal services to community development groups, legislative and public policy advocacy, and public education on important civil rights matters.

We welcome proposals aimed at addressing hate crimes. A successful proposal will support initiatives that speak to disrupting systems that enable hate and educating the general public and policy makers. The James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate is seeking a fellow to join our project—a groundbreaking mission that creatively deploys legal advocacy to disrupt the systems that enable racially hostile conduct directed at individuals or communities.

The fellow will develop their litigation skillset by working on matters in active litigation, including Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church v. Proud Boys International, LLC and Black Lives Matter vs. United States et al. The fellow will also take the lead in developing a comprehensive toolkit for bringing “stop hate” cases. The toolkit will serve as a model blueprint for litigation that will identify potential legal theories under statutes such as 42 U.S.C. § 1985 (Conspiracy to Interfere with Civil Rights, also known as the “KKK Act”) and 18 U.S.C. § 1964 (Civil RICO).

The toolkit will also offer solutions to issues that commonly arise in “stop hate” cases. The fellowship may also offer opportunities to travel nationwide to support litigation efforts and participate in coalition‑building conferences aimed at training advocates and advancing innovative strategies to combat racism in America.

• Identify, categorize, and rank hostile conduct directed at underserved communities.
• Identify hate groups that pose a threat to democracy.
• Develop recommendations for countering the groups through litigation, publicity, community organizing, state or federal advocacy, onsite monitoring, mobilization, or any other workable approaches.
• Assess the capacity of existing structures for hate crimes to respond to nationally coordinated threats and recommend any additional structures or approaches to enhance that capacity at the local and national level.

To the extent the fellow develops any strategy that can be fully or partially implemented during the term of the fellowship, they may participate in putting it into effect.

• JD or anticipated JD by May 2026
• A strong and demonstrated commitment to civil rights and racial justice.
• Creative approach to civil rights work and ability to take initiative during the project development and implementation stage.
• Prior experience working with or ties to low‑income communities of color.
• Excellent research, writing, and analytical skills as demonstrated through writing samples, internship and clinical experience, and academic records.
• Ability to work cooperatively on a variety of projects with all Lawyers’ Committee staff and to develop and maintain positive relationships with diverse clients and community organizations.
• Effective written and oral communication skills in both legal and non‑legal settings.

• Project
  
  Description:
  
  An outline of the proposed project, including objectives, timeline, target…