PSJD’s Job o’ the Day: Legal Fellow with Citizen Works

April 2, 2013 at 5:13 pm · Filed under Public Interest Jobs

From the PSJD job posting:

So you’ve taken contracts?

Now reform them.

Citizen Works, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization founded by Ralph Nader, is assembling a top notch team of interns, recent graduates and delayed-start associates looking for a public interest position to help reform the law of contracts.

You are a lawyer (or lawyer-to-be). How many contracts of adhesion have you signed for your Cell Phone? Software? Loans? Insurance? Auto Purchases/Rentals? Hotel/Travel Accommodations? Home Mortgage? Fitness Center? Welcome to the world of contracts of adhesion, known as standard form contracts or boilerplate contracts. It is a world in which controlling processes, e.g. “click here,” and the unread fine print have replaced consumer contractual consent to facilitate corporate America’s transactions—and profit margin.

…

Working under the supervision of experienced public interest lawyers, your work on the Contract Reform Team will consist of one or more of the following: Legal research, writing, public education, media outreach, advocacy, rulemaking, legislative initiatives, and/or litigation.

For example, our team will:

  1. Collect and analyze examples of anti-consumer contract provisions across a wide array of products/services
  2. Assemble examples of model (pro-consumer) contracts and work with law professors, consumer groups, government agencies to develop model contracts
  3. Collect examples of legislative proposals from states and Congress
  4. Commission and disseminate scholarly work on existing and emerging anti-consumer trends
  5. Develop materials for schools
  6. Work against the advance of anti-consumer provisions
  7. Lobby for pro-consumer model contract legislation
  8. Lobby to ban per-se anti-consumer provisions
  9. Petition federal agencies to ban anti-consumer provisions from contracts
  10. Petition state consumer agencies to ban anti-consumer provisions from contracts
  11. Build a coalition of consumer/labor groups to support project initiatives
  12. Work with large membership organizations to “collectively bargain” with issuers of consumer contracts to avoid one-sided terms

This project is being supervised by Theresa Amato, the executive director of Citizen Works, and an experienced public interest lawyer/litigator, along with the counsel of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who has taught a course on contracts of adhesion at American University’s Washington College of Law, as well as other contracts professors and public interest lawyers.

You may conduct your research/contribute to this effort from anywhere. There will be regular team meetings in downtown Chicago. If we have a critical mass of team members in a particular locale, such as Boston, DC, or New York, we may also establish team meetings there. Otherwise we will have bieweekly meetings by phone in which you are expected to participate.

Sounds right up your alley? Apply by May 31, 2013. For more information, view the full job description at PSJD.org (log-in required).