Associate​/Sr. Associate Attorney-Clean Water​/Lakes Protection

About ELPC:

The Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) is the Midwest’s premier public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization and is among the nation’s leaders. We develop and lead strategic environmental legal and policy advocacy campaigns to improve environmental quality and protect our natural resources. We are public interest environmental entrepreneurs who engage in creative business deal making with diverse interests to put into practice our sustainability principles that environmental progress and economic development can be achieved together.

ELPC drives transformational environmental policy changes at the national and regional level. We advance climate solutions with a focus on clean energy alternatives. We protect the Great Lakes and defend the Midwest’s wild and natural places and resources, and we fight for safe, clean water and healthy clean air for all. We combine effective public interest litigation and strategic policy advocacy, sound science and economic analysis.

ELPC produces strong results in the courtrooms, boardrooms, and legislative and administrative hearing rooms across the Midwest and in Washington, D.C.

ELPC’s growing multidisciplinary staff of talented public interest attorneys, policy advocates, data scientists and communications specialists bring a strong and effective combination of skills to solve environmental problems and improve the quality of life in our communities. Our headquarters is in downtown Chicago, with additional offices and staff across the Midwest states and in Washington, DC. ELPC’s annual budget is about $15 million.

Please visit www.

ELPC.org.

ELPC is proud to be honored by receiving the American Bar Association's 2023 Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship. This prominent national award recognizes ELPC’s significant accomplishments and demonstrated leadership on sustainable environmental and energy advocacy.

Come join our winning team of talented, mission-driven professionals, who passionately work together to protect the environment and natural resources in the Midwest region.

The Clean Water/Great Lakes Protection Associate Attorney will litigate and advocate to protect access to safe, clean water for people around the Midwest, and to protect the Great Lakes, which is a global ecological gem, provides safe clean drinking water supplies to 40 million people, and support enjoyable recreational opportunities and fisheries for the region. The Great Lakes is where we live, work and play.

The Associate Attorney (2-3 years of experience) or Senior Associate Attorney (4-6 years of experience) will engage in federal court strategic litigation, state court and administrative cases to tighten or enforce Clean Water Act permits, and federal and state policy initiatives to advance protection and restoration of the Great Lakes and safe, clean drinking water for all.

ELPC’s recent and ongoing clean water and Great Lakes protection work includes, for example:

• (1) successful federal court litigation on behalf of community group clients to stop the Army Corps of Engineers’ misguided proposed new toxic dredged wastes landfill along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Chicago’s Southeast Side environmental justice community
• (2) federal and state court litigation and policy advocacy to reduce industrial water pollution from large steel mills in Northwest Indiana
• (2) federal court litigation to alleviate toxic algae blooms in western Lake Erie by agricultural pollution in Northwest Ohio and in Michigan
• (4) successful litigation before the Michigan Supreme Court to reverse a permit for the proposed Line 5 oil pipeline tunnel running through the Straits of Mackinac
• (5) a multi-faceted…