Trial Attorney

Energy & Natural Resources Division; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Environmental Enforcement Section of the Energy & Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, seeks litigators with experience in environmental and bankruptcy law to advance nationwide civil enforcement actions.

Attorneys will handle complex bankruptcy-related matters, develop case strategy, conduct extensive discovery, and advocate in negotiations, hearings and trials to protect public health and safety as required by law.

Qualifications

• Experience in environmental and bankruptcy law.
• Proven litigation experience across federal environmental statutes.
• Strong legal research and writing skills.
• Effective oral advocacy and case presentation.

Responsibilities

• Pursue enforcement actions under federal environmental laws.
• Manage bankruptcy-related litigation and asset recovery.
• Develop case strategy with extensive factual and expert discovery.
• Prepare and argue motions and present evidence at hearings and trials.

Skills

Environmental law

Bankruptcy law

Litigation

Legal research & writing

Oral advocacy

Job description

The Environmental Enforcement Section is responsible for nationwide civil enforcement of federal environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (the Superfund law). Our attorneys pursue enforcement actions that result in significant benefits for public health, from reducing air pollution to cleaning up contaminated lands.

The Energy and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking litigators with experience in environmental and bankruptcy law for its Environmental Enforcement Section in Washington, D.C. The Section's bankruptcy cases have involved debtors engaged in a wide variety of industrial activities such as mining, chemical, coal, and oil and gas companies. The Section has brought actions under the statutes it enforces against debtors and also must protect the Government's interests in protecting health and safety in bankruptcy court. Objections are filed to debtors' proposed plans of reorganization and sales of assets that fail to adequately ensure compliance and protect public health and safety as required by law. Bankruptcy litigation may involve legal issues such as the police and regulatory exception to the automatic stay, feasibility of proposed plans of reorganization, the permissible scope of bankruptcy discharge and free and clear bankruptcy sales, abandonment, fraudulent conveyance, the priority of environmental liabilities in bankruptcy, obtaining compliance when a debtor's assets are collateralized, and estimation of environmental claims.

The breadth of the Section's practice is extensive and challenging. It includes cases of national scope, such as bankruptcy cases involving debtors with operations throughout the country and cases against multiple members of an identified industry. Characterized as complex litigation, the Section's cases typically involve significant factual and expert discovery and substantial motions practice in the pre-trial stage or pre-hearing briefing in bankruptcy cases. The Section's bankruptcy cases may involve presentation of argument and evidence at bankruptcy confirmation proceedings or other contested matters such as proposed asset sales or abandonments. The position will allow the selected individuals to utilize their superior legal research, writing and oral advocacy skills in all aspects of case development, negotiation, motions practice, and trial. The attorneys selected will be responsible for assuming a diverse case load brought under any of the statutes the Section enforces and will include both bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy cases depending on the ebb and flow of bankruptcy cases and Section needs.