Supervising Staff Attorney / Associate Research Scholar

Position description

Columbia Law School seeks an experienced human rights advocate with a strong interest in clinical teaching to join the Human Rights Clinic, beginning in the summer of 2026.

The Supervising Staff Attorney / Associate Research Scholar will join a team of advocates who co-teach the clinic and supervise clinic advocacy partnerships around the world. The clinic works to advance human rights and address global power imbalances while training the next generation of strategic advocates for social justice.

The Supervising Staff Attorney / Associate Research Scholar will be an integral part of the Columbia human rights community, and will play a key role in fostering this community. Over the course of their appointment, they will undertake increasing responsibility, including designing and teaching clinic seminars; building and leading clinic projects in partnership with civil society organizations and impacted communities; and providing close supervision, guidance, and feedback to teams of students working on those projects. Through this work, they will be equipping students with the skills necessary to be strategic and creative human rights advocates, critically analyze human rights, and advance innovative human rights methodologies. The Supervising Staff Attorney / Associate Research Scholar will also conduct and be supported to pursue their own scholarly research and writing. The Supervising Staff Attorney / Associate Research Scholar will also be a key staff member of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, and in that role, will contribute to and lead human rights programming.

The Supervising Staff Attorney / Associate Research Scholar will be provided extensive professional, teaching, practice, and scholarship mentoring.

The successful applicant will be appointed as Supervising Staff Attorney and hold the University title of Associate Research Scholar. They will also hold a secondary instructional appointment, pending faculty approval, as a Lecturer in Law for each semester in which they teach. The duration of the appointment is for a period of three years, which may be renewable based on performance for a further one-two years.This is a non-tenure track position.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• J.D. or equivalent legal degree for any jurisdiction;
• Strong academic qualifications; and
• A minimum of five years of experience working as an international human rights advocate.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A deep commitment to rigorous, pragmatic, creative, and self-reflective social justice and human rights work;
• A deep commitment to teaching and mentoring new generations of advocates, a passion for education, and a strong interest in pedagogy theory and practice;
• Strong interest and ability in challenging existing norms and methods in the human rights field, and an interest in pursuing new interdisciplinary and critical research and scholarship;
• A strong education in and awareness of critiques of human rights, and a commitment to integrating those critiques into human rights practice;
• Experience, initiative, and ability to undertake independent research;
• Substantive legal and practical knowledge across multiple human rights issues;
• Strong interest and commitment to fostering an inclusive, welcoming, and supportive environment within the clinic, as well as to empowering others to bring their full identities, backgrounds, and perspectives to seminars and projects;
• Knowledge of and exceptional ability to implement the wide range of tactics and tools employed in the human rights field, and commitment to the strategic use of these to challenge existing injustices and hierarchies, including within the human rights field itself;
• Project, team, and time management and organizational skills, and excellent interpersonal skills;
• Deep personal commitment and ability to work in mutually empowering, collaborative, and rights-respecting partnerships and coalitions, including in particular with communities affected by human rights violations; and
• Second language abilities.

Application instructions

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