Associate Attorney

About the role

Center for Food Safety(CFS), one of the nation’s top food and environmental nonprofits, seeks anAssociate Attorneyto join our team.TheAssociate Attorney position is a two-year position with the possibility of promotion and continuation with CFS. Designed for attorneys in the early stages of their environmental/advocacy career, the Associate Attorney works with the rest of the CFS legal and policy team and participates in all phases of public interest impact litigation and administrative advocacyon an ever-expanding variety of cutting-edge food and environmental issues, in support of CFS’s overall mission and its specific program areas, includingbut not limited to:

• Consumer Advocacy

• Farmworker and Farmer Protection

• Food and Climate Change

• Food Labeling/Right to Know

• Genetically Engineered Organisms and Monocultures

• Industrial Animal Agriculture

• Industrial Aquaculture

• Pesticides &Other Toxins

• Pollinator & Wildlife Protection

• Public Health

• RegenerativeAgriculture: Organic & Beyond

What you'll do

• Work closely with other CFS attorneys, policy and communications staff, scientists, coalitionpartners,and clients to build cases and support policies

• Participate in a variety of tasks in litigation and administrative advocacy, including factual investigation, legal research and analysis, negotiation, discovery and record review, briefing, and oral advocacy

• Represent CFS and clients in state and federal rulemaking and agency engagement

• Maintain anddeveloporganizational partnershipswith new clients, allies, and coalition partners

• Promote and educate the public and media on various CFS issues

• Assistwith hiring and supervision of law clerks

Desired qualifications and skills

• Law schoolgraduatewith 1-3 years of legal experience (clerkship,administrative/environmental/animal law, or relatedareapreferred)

• Admission to the California or Oregon bar or a willingness to be licensed in either state within oneyear

• A passion for enforcing and strengthening environmentaland food/aglaws

• Excellent legal research and writingskills

• Self-motivation and willingness to do administrativetasks

• Ability to work collaboratively with others in a small, team-orientedenvironment

• Interest ora backgroundin food and agriculture issues is a plus, but notrequired

Compensation and benefits

Hybrid - San Francisco: $85,000 - $98,000 USD/ year (salary)

Hybrid - Portland: $78,000 - $89,000 USD/ year (salary)

CFS offers a competitive compensation package, a flexible hybrid work environment, and a four-day workweek. In addition to salary, we offer a discretionary annual bonus and employer matching contributions to a retirement plan. Benefits include medical, vision, and dental insurance, disability insurance, a pre-tax medical savings plan, and generous vacation and leave policies. As a 501(c)(3) organization, CFS qualifies as an employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.

Who we are

Center for Food Safety (CFS)'s mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the Earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture. We defend and promote your right to safe food and a clean environment through groundbreaking legal, scientific, and grassroots action.

For over 25 years, we have created a new food future, fostering a more powerful food movement against the harmful industrial agricultural system while promoting organic, ecological, and regenerative alternatives. We've won high-profile lawsuits to protect public health and endangered species from pesticides like Monsanto’s Roundup and dicamba. We prevented the introduction of genetically engineered wheat, rice, potatoes, and more to the market and secured meaningful labeling to ensure that we all know what's in our food. We succeeded in instilling animal welfare requirements into the organic standards and protected the oceans from industrial aquaculture. And much more: Our groundbreaking legal cases that protect pollinators, farmworkers, and farming communities, and the earth from the devastating impacts of industrial farming, are a landmark body of case law on food and much more: Our groundbreaking legal cases that protect pollinators, farmworkers, and farming communities, and the earth from the devastating impacts of industrial farming, are a landmark body of case law on food and agricultural issues, transforming our food system.