Employment Opportunities
Looking for a job, career, internship, clerkship or fellowship in animal law?
The Animal Legal Defense Fund offers a list of our current employment opportunities plus additional opportunities at various law firms and non-profit organizations across the country.
If you are a law firm or non-profit organizations, you can submit your opportunity and we will consider it for publication on aldf.org.
Opportunities at the Animal Legal Defense Fund
Interim General Counsel (Maternity Coverage), Animal Protection Nonprofit
The Humane League
WHO WE ARE
The Humane League (THL) is a global nonprofit ending the abuse of animals raised for food. THL fosters a high-energy culture of teamwork and mission-driven problem solving, and we have earned recognition as Top Charity from Animal Charity Evaluators for all of their rating periods. Over the past few years, we’ve grown to a staff of 100+ talented individuals dispersed across the country and around the world. At THL, how animals are treated in the food system is at the forefront of our everyday work. As such, many of our staff are vegan by personal choice, and all of our THL-hosted events offer fully vegan menus. We welcome all mission-aligned candidates to apply, no matter where you are in your journey to end the abuse of animals raised for food.
YOUR OPPORTUNITY
As the Interim General Counsel (Maternity Coverage), you play an integral role in furthering The Humane League’s mission to end the abuse of animals raised for food. You will serve as part of the organization’s Senior Leadership Team, ensure that the organization operates within the law, offer counsel on legal issues, be an effective guardian of the organization, and facilitate programmatic and operational strategies ensuring legal compliance and limiting risk exposure.
We want you because you’re familiar with the accountabilities of a legal team in the non-profit and mission-focused space. You comprehend that there is more to lawyering than identifying risk, and you think creatively to generate solutions that allow for various levels of risk mitigation or exposure. You are comfortable exercising and utilizing strategic judgment to help navigate tricky situations. You believe that win-win solutions exist and have to be prioritized, particularly when it comes to employee relations issues.
This is a temporary full-time, remote position, reporting to the President. The temporary hire will provide coverage while a permanent staff member is on maternity leave, and overlap will be provided for training and onboarding. Employment is expected to be five and a half months in duration, beginning on approximately November 4, 2024. The duration of employment may be extended or shortened at The Humane League’s discretion.
We are only able to consider applicants who reside in the United States and possess United States work authorization.
This position will close on Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 1:00pm PDT/2:00pm MDT/3:00pm CDT/4:00pm EDT. Late applications will not be accepted; if you are experiencing technical issues, please contact careers@thehumaneleague.org prior to the deadline. Please submit applications and all supporting documents in English. All application questions and materials need to be submitted here through the application submission, we do not accept applications through our careers email.
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES
Your responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, providing visionary thought leadership and strategic guidance organization wide
- Set long-term strategic vision and priorities for the Legal team
- Nonprofit compliance, including corporate governance, finance and tax, charitable solicitation, commercial co-ventures, international grantmaking, and lobbying
- Direct THL’s international legal portfolio, including international liability and international labor and employment
- Manage, develop, and mentor a small legal team. Provide vision and role clarity, guidance, coaching, training, and accountability. Manage the department’s budget and spending.
- Support and advise the Board of Directors, including drafting and revising corporate policies, bylaws, minutes, agendas, and resolutions
- Advise the People team on federal, multistate, and international employment law, including employee handbook and policies, contingent workforce compliance, employee training, and investigations
- Advise management and staff on legal issues related to programmatic initiatives
- Draft, review, and negotiate a wide variety of contracts for all aspects of the organization
- Data privacy and security issues, training, and compliance. Will be exposed to concepts of US data privacy and GDPR.
- Support the development of training materials, guidance documents, and relevant staff and volunteer training
- Manage the organization’s insurance portfolio and intellectual property portfolio
- Establish and manage relationships with pro bono attorneys and outside counsel.
- Other duties as assigned or necessary
REQUIRED SKILLS
- Extensive generalist legal experience, including 10 years of prior experience in a nonprofit, government agency, or private sector. In-house counsel experience would be helpful. JD degree and status as a member of good standing of the bar in any state or the District of Columbia.
- Experience working with a global organization and familiarity with working cross-culturally and with those of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
- A desire to advise and support The Humane League’s contentious and relentless corporate campaign work. Willingness to assess and recommend an appropriate amount of risk in programmatic work in accordance with our goals and the urgency of our mission.
- Interest in leading both litigation and administrative aspects of the legal function.
- Able to critically evaluate a wide range of issues and provide sound legal advice. Able to develop familiarity with legal systems in and outside of the U.S. and to adapt policies and procedures in compliance with local law. Able to quickly take complex concepts and make difficult judgements in the best interests of the organization.
- Able to convey information clearly, accurately, and appropriately to different audiences including staff, senior leadership, and the public across various cultural and linguistic backgrounds, through verbal, written and nonverbal modes to ensure the intended message is understood. Able to communicate legal findings and decisions briefly, simply, and persuasively.
- Must be able to anticipate, diffuse and resolve disagreements, confrontations, tensions and complaints in a practical and constructive manner in order to achieve results.
- Demonstrated ability to foster high performance, build solid teams, and develop and motivate staff with transparency and collaboration. Delegates skillfully. Inspires and motivates others to take action and meet goals, and holds the team accountable.
- Effectively manages a high volume of work through various methods of organization, project and task management, and prioritization as needs evolve.
- Ability to think strategically and anticipate potential problems, challenge conventional thinking. Ability to pivot when a course of action isn’t providing the intended results, flexible when it comes to reassessing own ideas and assumptions as new information comes to light and identify patterns to make meaning out of overarching trends. An ability to see information through the lens of the past, present, and future to address both short-term and long-term goals.
Once your application has been reviewed, you will be notified via email with further details on the status of your application. If a candidate is moved forward, the interview process will be as follows:
- Work Simulation Exercise (completed remotely)
- First Interview (via video call)
- Final Interview (via video call)
- Reference Check
Each stage is expected to last a week or two on average. For full details of our recruitment process please review this document.
Compensation and Benefits
The annual compensation range for this role is $142,499 - $174,165 USD. At The Humane League, we believe in maintaining a fair and equitable work environment for all employees. As part of our commitment to transparency and equity, we recently implemented a job architecture framework, which levels all of our roles according to size and complexity, as well as a compensation step system, which allows us to account for an individual's total years of related experience when determining their compensation. In addition, we have adopted a no negotiation policy for salaries. To determine a job's level, we carefully consider a variety of factors, including a job's size and complexity, required experience, knowledge, and/or skills, internal comparability, and market data. To determine final compensation, experience will be measured by considering prior work in jobs or activities that are related to the role at THL. Candidates whose experience places them at step 5 or above of their job level within our compensation structure will be awarded a senior designation. These new practices are aligned with our organizational values and will help us ensure we maintain clear, consistent, transparent, and equitable HR processes.
Employees enjoy full medical coverage, optional dental and vision packages, a 401(k) retirement plan, pet care & Rx discount plans, working from home, up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave for eligible employees, paid holidays, flexible vacation time, professional development, and the supportive environment at The Humane League!
Equal Employment Opportunity
The Humane League is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Women, people of color, people with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. In compliance with laws and in furtherance of our commitment to fostering an environment that welcomes and embraces diversity, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status.
Accommodations
The Humane League is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. We trust individuals to self-identify and ask for the accommodations they need. An example of an accommodation might be extra time to complete a work simulation exercise, among many others. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please complete this form to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.
AI Policy
We value original work and thought in the application process; with that being said, please refrain from using artificial intelligence to generate your responses. By submitting this application you agree to comply with this. Violations of this policy may result in being dismissed from the hiring process. If you need a reasonable accommodation to this policy, please see above for more information.