Climate & Health Program Attorney

Reports to: Climate & Health Program Director

Hours & Status: Full-time exempt; union eligible

Salary: $72,000 – $95,000 annual salary (commensurate with experience)

Location: New Mexico or Colorado (Regular travel expected within NM and CO for hearings, field visits, and coalition engagement)

Position Summary:

Reporting to WildEarth Guardians’ Climate & Health Program Director, the Climate and Health Program Attorney will develop, spearhead, and implement legal strategies and tactics that expose the true cost of oil and gas extraction and strengthen protections for clean air, clean water, public lands, and public health.

Special Note:

WildEarth Guardians is hiring two positions to bolster our nationally-recognized Climate & Health team, known for its innovative and leading-edge approach to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and exposing the true costs of oil and gas pollution: the Climate & Health Attorney and the Climate & Health Advocate. Collectively, these roles will operate primarily in New Mexico and Colorado with an eye toward larger, west-wide policy around public lands leasing, oil and gas waste, impacts on frontline communities, and keeping it in the ground. We’re looking for candidates who have experience litigating, advocating, building coalitions, and winning in the oil and gas space. We are open to different approaches for filling these capacity needs with the knowledge that at least one role needs to be filled by a practicing attorney, ready to engage in federal court, state administrative proceedings, or both. We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds in this realm of work and seek the two best candidates to tackle the major problems facing the West.

The Attorney will focus primarily on New Mexico and Colorado, coordinating closely with Guardians’ Climate and Health Advocates in both states to ensure consistent and effective engagement across legal, policy, and campaign priorities. This work will advance Guardians’ broader strategy to end federal oil and gas leasing by 2035 and to hold state and federal regulators accountable for pollution, waste, and environmental health violations.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

New Mexico & Colorado–Focused Administrative and Legal Engagement (65%)

• Represent Guardians in litigation and administrative proceedings at both the federal and state-level, pertaining to regulating the oil and gas industry and its environmental and health impacts.
• Develop and maintain relationships with outside counsel representing Guardians and work cooperatively as co-counsel with outside counsel.
• Engage in rulemakings and other policymaking proceedings (including quasi-adjudicatory state venues) addressing produced water, waste management, air, and water pollution in New Mexico and Colorado
• Draft or assist in drafting technical comments and filings on administrative actions related to oil and gas regulation.
• Identify and pursue proactive legal and policy opportunities (e.g., rulemaking petitions, enforcement actions, or precedent-setting appeals), identify systemic failures and strategic leverage points, and evaluate litigation proposals from program staff and directors.

Federal Oil and Gas Advocacy (25%)

• Monitor and review federal register notices, NEPA documents, and other agency filings for leasing and planning opportunities.
• Draft or assist in drafting comments and administrative appeals over federal oil and gas leasing proposals in New Mexico, Colorado, and other western states.
• Work with in-house and external counsel in developing litigation under federal environmental laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Federal Land Policy and Management Act.
• Help advance Guardians’ policy and advocacy vision for a moratorium on federal onshore oil and gas leasing and a full transition to clean energy.
• Collaborate with the Climate and Health Program Director, Advocates, and partners to develop innovative legal strategies and coalition efforts to confront leasing, waste, and climate impacts.

Communications & Community Engagement (10%)

• Communicate with the media to provide Guardians’ legal and policy perspective.
• Draft press materials, backgrounders, and commentary in collaboration with the Program Director.
• Support the development of blog posts, op-eds, and social media content highlighting legal and regulatory actions.
• Represent Guardians in communications events, webinars, and panels.
• Contribute to storytelling that connects legal advocacy to public health, community well-being, and environmental justice.
• Provide expertise to support fundraising and program development efforts
• Attend community meetings and field visits, particularly in southeastern and northwestern New Mexico, and along the Front Range and Western Slope in Colorado.

Qualifications:

• Law degree from an accredited law school with admission to the New Mexico or Colorado Bar or willingness and ability to obtain membership to one of those state bars by the start date.
• 4+ years of demonstrated experience in environmental, administrative, or energy law (nonprofit, government, or private practice).
• Experience writing and filing administrative comments, appeals, and litigation pleadings.
• Strong understanding of oil and gas regulation, including air quality, produced water, waste management, and public health impacts.
• Familiarity with federal oil and gas leasing processes, resource management planning, and strategies to reform or end leasing programs.
• Understanding of western U.S. political, environmental, and cultural dynamics, particularly in New Mexico and Colorado.
• Experience working with and building authentic relationships with community-based organizations, including those led by frontline and underrepresented groups.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Knowledge of federal statutes such as NEPA, FLPMA, RCRA, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex legal issues into compelling advocacy and communications materials.
• Strong analytical and research abilities.
• Willingness to travel regularly within NM and CO and occasionally throughout the western U.S.
• Capacity to manage multiple priorities and deadlines while maintaining attention to detail.
• Creative thinker, strategic risk-taker who pursues bold advocacy within the bounds of law and ethics
• A healthy degree of creativity, irreverence, and sense of humor.
• Commitment to WildEarth Guardians’ mission and values, including Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) principles.

Compensation & Benefits

WildEarth Guardians offers a friendly and flexible, team-based environment with an excellent benefits package. Benefits include full health, vision, dental, life, and disability coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% match, paid and unpaid health and family leave, a sabbatical policy, sick leave, three weeks paid vacation to start, and fourteen holidays including your birthday. Salary is negotiable based on experience.

ADA Statement

WildEarth Guardians is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. In keeping with our commitment, WildEarth Guardians will take the steps to assure that people with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. Accordingly, if reasonable accommodation is required to fully participate in the job application or interview process, to perform the essential functions of the position, and/or to receive all other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact davila@wildearthguardians.org

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

WildEarth Guardians is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, family/marital status, religion or other protected classes. We encourage applications from persons of color, women and LGBTQ+ candidates.

Studies have shown that women, non-binary people, and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet all of the qualifications listed. Guardians will consider lived experience and transferable skills as qualifying unless an item is labeled as required. We are most interested in finding the best candidates for the job. If you think you’d be a great fit for this position, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications.

About WildEarth Guardians

WildEarth Guardians’ mission is to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West. Headquartered in Santa Fe, NM, the organization has several remote staff throughout the West and has established offices in Missoula, MT, Boise, ID, Portland, OR, and Tucson, AZ. Guardians has a 33-year history of securing environmental protections that safeguard endangered species and other wildlife, advance pioneering supply-side climate policy, restore living rivers, and protect public lands. We do this by pursuing innovative and sustained legal campaigns, advancing bold and creative policy and legislative solutions at both the state and federal levels, and mobilizing grassroots and grasstops constituencies.

WildEarth Guardians offers a friendly and flexible, team-based environment with an excellent benefits package. Benefits include full health, vision, dental, life, and disability coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% match, paid and unpaid health and family leave, a sabbatical policy, sick leave, three weeks paid vacation to start, and fourteen holidays including your birthday. Salary is negotiable based on experience.