Attorney or Senior Attorney; Energy

Attorney or Senior Attorney (Energy)

The Institute for Policy Integrity (Policy Integrity) seeks applicants for an attorney or a senior attorney position with a primary focus on energy law. This position may be based in our New York City office or Washington, D.C., but with a preference for applicants able to work from New York.

Policy Integrity is seeking an attorney to be a key member of a diverse team to advocate for the efficient decarbonization of the energy system. The attorney will work closely with Policy Integrity’s economists and lawyers to advance federal, regional, and state energy policy, focusing on wholesale electricity market design, transmission infrastructure, and natural gas pipelines. Depending on interest and need, the attorney will also have the opportunity to work on select Policy Integrity projects outside of the area of energy regulation.

This position will report to Policy Integrity’s Federal Energy Policy Director.

Housed at the New York University School of Law, Policy Integrity is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to improving the quality of government decision making. Our principal focus is U.S. energy and environmental policy, with a particular emphasis on climate change. We produce original scholarly research in the fields of economics, law, and regulatory policy. We also advocate for reform before courts and government agencies.

Policy Integrity’s interdisciplinary mission focuses on the rational use of economic analysis in government decision making and how tools like cost‑benefit analysis and distributional analysis can improve policy design. Policy Integrity’s projects cover a range of issue areas, with a particular emphasis on federal environmental protections and federal‑and state‑level electricity policies, as well as a steady stream of projects on public health and consumer protection.

Policy Integrity’s successful advocacy outcomes include ensuring that agencies are required to consider the lost social benefits and other harms of any deregulatory actions; guiding state utility regulators on the need to value environmental externalities in energy policy decisions; improving energy market designs and planning decisions; and convincing both federal and state courts to endorse the use of the social cost of carbon for monetizing avoided climate damages.

• Track and analyze emerging issues in energy law and policy;
• Draft regulatory comments, petitions for rule makings, and other formal submissions to agencies, including, but not limited to, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, regional transmission organizations, and state public utility commissions;
• Represent Policy Integrity in partnerships with other academic institutions, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations;
• Author reports and academic papers;
• Draft op-eds, respond to media inquiries, and post on social media regarding Policy Integrity’s work related to federal energy regulatory issues;
• Draft amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, DC Circuit, and other courts in major energy and environmental cases;
• Supervise research assistants and students in NYU School of Law’s Regulatory Policy Clinic.

• Commitment to advancing Policy Integrity’s mission;
• JD, with superior academic achievement;
• For attorneys based out of our New York office, admission to the New York Bar or willingness to seek New York Bar admission within one year of employment; for attorneys based out of Washington, DC, admission to the DC bar or willingness to seek DC bar admission within one year of employment;
• 3+ years of relevant legal experience for attorney candidates, 6+ years of relevant legal experience for senior attorney candidates;
• Excellent writing skills;
• Specialized experience in electricity law, especially Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and regional transmission organization proceedings, and a good understanding of energy markets is strongly preferred; and
• Previous experience at relevant federal agencies; specialized knowledge in environmental law, administrative law, or economics; clerkships; litigation experience; legislative experience; or…