Jump to main content.

Jobs & Externships

Attorney Positions | Legal Externships  | Other EPA Employment Opportunities

Welcome to the Office of Regional Counsel Jobs & Externships page!  We appreciate your interest in employment with ORC. Click below to go the section you'd like to read.  If you are new to this page, we recommend reading this information in its entirety.

Attorney Positions

Attorneys in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chicago office are responsible for a variety of legal duties associated with implementing various environmental laws in six midwestern states. The responsibilities include counseling the various program offices, defending the agency when sued, conducting administrative litigation, developing civil enforcement cases for litigation, working with the U.S. Department of Justice in litigating those cases, and negotiating settlements of such cases. Attorneys work on matters receiving intense public and congressional attention involving serious threats to public health and the environment and often millions of dollars in cleanup costs to eliminate those threats.

Working in a large organization, attorneys must be skilled at coordinating and cooperating with large numbers of involved parties. Attorneys must also be able to resolve disputes and develop a consensus among different interests, including the public, industry, environmental groups, and state and local governments.

The starting salary for a GS-905-11 General Attorney in Chicago is $55,958 as of January 2006, excluding benefits.

To apply, please submit a resume, two reference letters attesting to your professional qualifications, a personal statement (not to exceed one page in length) expressing why you desire to work for U.S. EPA and how your educational background and/or professional experience will benefit this office, a writing sample, and law school transcripts.

Your application materials should be sent to the attention of:

Cheryl Klebenow, C-14J
Office of Regional Counsel
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604

Questions about the status of your application should be directed to Ms. Darlene Weatherspoon, (312) 886-6823.

Legal Externships

Description

Externs in Region 5's Office of Regional Counsel typically conduct legal research and write legal memoranda to support enforcement cases brought under Superfund (CERCLA), the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), among others.

The experience will of course vary depending upon the project assigned to the extern. It is not atypical for externs, in addition to legal research and writing, to attend negotiations and public meetings, to draft dispositive motions (such as motions for accelerated decision in cases before an administrative law judge), or to draft requests for information or subpoenas pursuant to statutory authority.

Qualifications and Application Procedures

Most all the externs at ORC are law school students in their second or third year of study (or between them). We find these students have the training and interests most applicable to the experiences we provide at ORC, and in turn they benefit the most from such experiences. At times there are externships available which do not deal with legal research and writing, and are thus open to undergraduate students, though these are rare. Application procedures for any type of externship are the same (see below).

Interviews typically wrap up about one month before the start date of the externship. Interviews for summer externships start in December of the prior year.  If an extern wishes to continue working for a second or third semester for ORC, we do ask the extern to reapply.

In order to be considered for an extern position, an applicant should submit a cover letter, resume, and writing sample to:

Leverett Nelson, Branch Chief
Office of Regional Counsel (C-14J)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5
77 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604-3590

In order to begin their externship, successful candidates must submit several forms, including an application for government employment, a worksite experience form (which requires a signature by the school in which the candidate is enrolled) a computer security form, and an ethics form.

Scheduling & Compensation

Externs are expected to work at least 16 hours per week, and preferably 20 hours per week, during the semester. During the summer, externs work 40 hours per week.  To the greatest extent possible, these hours should be in blocks of time (for example, mornings or afternoons four days a week or two eight-hour days a week). We find that less time than that means less interesting and productive experiences for the extern.

Fall, spring, and summer externships are available. Fall externships usually start the day after Labor Day; spring externships start after the Martin Luther King holiday; and summer externships begin after Memorial Day.

Because we are aware that many externs receive academic credit for their experiences, we work hard to ensure that externships are both beneficial and challenging.

Externship positions do not provide monetary compensation.

For more information about ORC's externships, you may call or email Rett Nelson at (312) 886-6666 / nelson.leverett@epa.gov.

Other EPA Employment Opportunities

 

 

 

Local Navigation

Jump to main content.