Senior Fellow, Equal Justice Works Civil Rights

Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc.; Montgomery (AL); On-site; USD 55,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Structured peer engagement

Training and evaluation

Job summary

The SPLC is seeking experienced Civil Rights Senior Fellows who are committed to social justice. This EJW Fellowship, based at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is a new pilot program to strengthen litigation and advocacy in the nonprofit sector.

Senior Fellows will design and implement a defined, time-bound project aligned with SPLC's impact goals, including Protecting Democracy and Ending Unjust Incarceration.

Qualifications

• Experience litigating complex cases in federal, state, and administrative courts.
• Experience working with communities and grassroots campaigns.
• Commitment to non-hierarchical, client-centered advocacy and community impact.
• Ability to synthesize legal and policy developments for diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated legal research and factual investigation skills.
• Ability to draft briefs, memos, and other legal documents with a team.
• Creative thinking to design innovative litigation or advocacy strategies.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement time-bound civil rights projects.
• Advance SPLC's impact goals: Protecting Democracy, Combating Hate, Eliminating Poverty, Ending Injust Incarceration.
• Collaborate with EJW fellows and SPLC's ALITs to execute interventions.
• Participate in structured peer engagement, training, and evaluation.

Skills

Litigation experience

Advocacy

Community outreach

Analytical thinking

Legal research

Legal writing

Creativity

Job description

The SPLC is seeking experienced Civil Rights Senior Fellows who are committed to social justice!

This unique mid-career Equal Justice Works (EJW) Fellowship, based at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is a new pilot program designed to address urgent gaps in civil rights enforcement resulting from recent reductions in federal capacity. SPLC's EJW Civil Rights Fellowship will mobilize former government civil rights attorneys in strengthening litigation and advocacy efforts in the nonprofit sector.

Through this Fellowship, Senior Fellows will design and implement a defined, time-bound litigation or advocacy project. The project will align with one or more of SPLC's four impact goals: Protecting Democracy, Combatting Hate and Extremism, Eliminating Poverty, and Ending Unjust Incarceration. Each Senior Fellow’s project is expected to advance systemic civil rights enforcement priorities, respond to pressing unmet needs, and contribute to lasting impact within the broader civil rights ecosystem.

Senior Fellows are responsible for articulating clear objectives, establishing measurable indicators of success, and executing strategic interventions over the course of the Fellowship. In addition to advancing their project within SPLC, Senior Fellows will participate in structured peer engagement, training, and evaluation coordinated by EJW, contributing to collective insight and field-wide impact.

Senior Fellows will collaborate as part of a cohort of EJW Civil Rights Fellows and with SPLC's Advocacy and Litigation Teams (ALITs) to advance this work.

This is a 2-year fellowship that will end in 2028.

Who You Are

• Experienced. Demonstrated experience litigating complex individual, multi-plaintiff, and/or class action cases in federal, state, and administrative courts. Demonstrated experience in litigation based on the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes.
• Advocate. Experience working with community organizations, grassroots campaigns, and impacted communities, particularly in the Deep South. Experience conducting outreach activities related to litigation and campaigns.
• Committed. Demonstrated interest and commitment to community-oriented and movement-supportive lawyering. Dedicated to a non-hierarchical, client-centered approach to advocacy and ability to work on sensitive issues in a compassionate and empathetic manner.
• Analytical. Ability to synthesize complex legal and policy developments, analyze requests for legal assistance, and provide technical assistance to communities and partner organizations.
• Researcher. Demonstrated ability to conduct legal research and factual investigations.
• Writer. Ability to draft briefs, memos, and other documents in support of litigation, advocacy, and public education with a team and independently.
• Creative. Ability