Federal Relations Counsel

The  American  Association  for  Justice  (AAJ®)  is  seeking  an  entry  level  Federal Relations Counsel  for  its  Public  Affairs  department.  AAJ  works  to  preserve  the constitutional right to trial by jury and to make sure people have a fair chance to seek justice when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others—even when it means taking on the most powerful 
corporations.

The  Federal  Relations  Counsel  assists  with  legislative  and  regulatory  projects,  and advocacy on civil justice  issues,  with an emphasis on the federal judicial nominations process. This position focuses heavily on administrative duties, research, writing, and data entry.

Essential Functions: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Duties include:

•    Focus on the issues affecting individuals’ access to justice which includes:

•    Assist with regular communication with the policy makers.
•    Work with allied groups on shared policy goals.
•    Draft  advocacy  material,  such  as  one-pagers  and  fact  sheets,            and testimony to promote policy goals.
•    Draft regulatory comments and letters in response to rulemakings.
•    Create, maintain, and routinely update various tracking databases for purposes of legislation and the federal judicial nominations process.

•    Heavy focus on research, policy writing and drafting all the following: legislative materials, advocacy  materials,  regulatory  comments, policy/issue  white  papers and background memos.

•    Brief members of Congress and staff and prepare and provide information to Hill, particularly focusing on the needs of Committees of jurisdiction.

•    Analyze  and  assess  legislation  to  evaluate  civil  justice  implications  for  our members, including conducting legal research on legislative proposals.

•    Monitor the daily progress of legislation affecting access to the courts.

•    Monitor the daily progress of the federal judicial nominations process including:

•    Create  education  materials  for  stakeholders  about  the  federal  judicial nominations process; closely  monitor  current  and  upcoming  vacancies and educate members of congress and the media on the importance of professional  and  descriptive  diversity  on  the  federal  bench to  ensure fairness and proper representation of all individuals who rely on the civil justice system.

•    Conduct research on the process of selecting federal judicial candidates and  research  issues of  access  to  justice  including  reviewing  case opinions, case representations, legal and 
academic writings.

•    Assist Regulatory Counsel as needed on regulatory advocacy, including analyzing impact of proposed regulations on AAJ membership, drafting regulatory comments and letters, conducting legal research on proposed regulations.

•    Perform administrative tasks as assigned in order to support the public affairs team including database  creation  and  maintenance,  schedule  meetings,  coordinating with coalition partners, and creation of presentations.

•    Attend lobby meetings; work on special projects, and assist the lobbying team as needed.