Clinical Supervising Attorney & Lecturer in Law, International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic

Position description

The Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School invites applicants for a clinical supervising attorney (CSA) and lecturer-in-law position with its International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic (IHRCRC). The CSA will join the thriving clinical community at Stanford Law School where, together with the clinical faculty and staff, they will represent clients, work alongside project partners, and train law students at one of the country’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education.

The Mills Legal Clinic

IHRCRC is one of eleven clinics comprising the Mills Legal Clinic. The Stanford clinical program is unique in that students participate in a clinic on a full-time basis; the clinic is the only course a student takes during the term of enrollment. Students work in the clinic space each business day, and they focus exclusively and intensively on their clients, cases, and projects. This model allows for highly intentional, reflective, and iterative work and the ability to provide deep supervision and mentoring to students. The Mills Legal Clinic is also committed to ensuring community and belonging in all of its office and practice management, advocacy, and teaching and learning efforts. The Mills Legal Clinic occupies an entire floor in an award-winning, central-campus building opened in summer 2011.

International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic

IHRCRC engages students in innovative and interdisciplinary advocacy to advance human rights and foster just and lasting peace globally. While in the Clinic, students develop the skills to become thoughtful, critical, adaptive, strategic, and creative lawyers, through engagement in an intensive seminar and project work. The Clinic works on urgent, under-addressed, and emerging human rights issues. The projects are designed and implemented in partnership with impacted communities and civil society groups around the world, and community agency and power are values that underlie all the work of the Clinic.

The Clinic’s practice is responsive to the needs of our project partners and currently spans the following areas: equality and non-discrimination, rights across borders, peace and justice, and climate justice. Since the relaunch of the Clinic in 2023, students have worked in partnership with advocates and communities in Uganda, Jamaica, Liberia, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico, Colombia, Myanmar, The Gambia, and the United States. Clinic projects adopt a range of methodologies from the human rights and conflict resolution fields including litigation; fact-finding investigations; legislative and policy drafting; advocacy to the United Nations, media, or governments; coalition building across regions and disciplines; conflict analysis; and designing and facilitating dialogues in conflict-affected regions or across identity groups.

The Clinic is also a space for students to examine key critiques of the human rights and conflict resolution fields, reflect on how to mitigate these critiques, and brainstorm how to engage in transformative and rights-based work. Additionally, students reflect on their own identity as advocates and its implications for their work, and how to work collaboratively in teams and with project partners to advance change.

The Clinical Supervising Attorney Position and Candidate Qualifications

The CSA plays an important role in designing and implementing all aspects of the Clinic, including setting up and leading clinic projects, co-creating the syllabus and curriculum with the Director of the Clinic, facilitating seminar and case rounds discussions, fostering a sense of deep and supportive community within the Clinic, and supervising students in all aspects of their work, including during travel and through individualized mentoring. The CSA will also be involved with human rights programming at the law school and university, and will have the opportunity to engage in scholarly research and writing.

Mills Legal Clinic CSAs are part of the intellectual community within the clinical program, the Law School, and university at large. The Mills Legal Clinic provides resources for its CSAs to participate in continuing education and any other professional development/training/mentorship activities that support the CSA’s individual learning goals. Finally, the CSA will be a part of the Mills Legal Clinic’s efforts to ensure community and belonging in our teaching, practice management, and advocacy work by serving on MLC-wide committees that inform these efforts.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications

• J.D. or equivalent legal degree;
• A minimum of five years of human rights experience, which may include supervising and mentoring law students and/or junior colleagues; and
• Admission to practice in California or eligibility and willingness to sit for the next California Bar exam.

Preferred qualifications

• Demonstrated commitment to rigorous, innovative, strategic, and self-reflective human rights work;
• Substantive legal knowledge of human rights issues;
• Ability to design and direct complex, innovative, and interdisciplinary projects;
• Significant experience implementing a wide range of tactics and tools employed in the human rights field;
• Deep commitment and demonstrated ability to work in strong, collaborative, and rights-respecting partnerships, including with clients, impacted communities, and civil society organizations;
• An understanding of and engagement with critiques of human rights field, as well as experience with responding to and overcoming those critiques in practice;
• Excellent teamwork, collaboration, and interpersonal skills;
• Strong organizational / management skills and attention to detail;
• Ability to work in a self-directed and entrepreneurial environment; and
• Second language abilities.

The expected pay range for this position is $130,000 – $170,000 per annum.Stanford University has provided a good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for the position. The pay offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors including (but not limited to) the qualifications of the selected candidate, budget availability, and internal equity.

Application instructions

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