About the Institute for Free Speech
Founded in 2005 by former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith, the nonpartisan Institute for Free Speech (IFS) promotes and defends the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government.
Litigation and legal advocacy comprise about half of IFS’s program activities. The other half consists of traditional think tank work, such as research, education, communications, and external relations.
This position primarily supports our litigation efforts.
The Opportunity to Litigate for Free Speech
IFS is hiring an Attorney with at least seven years of experience to support its ongoing litigation efforts. The position is located either in the Washington, DC office or remotely at any location within the United States with reasonable access to air travel.
This is a rare opportunity to litigate to protect and advance Constitutional rights. IFS challenges laws, practices, and policies that infringe upon First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, press, and petition concerning politics. Cases typically secure people’s rights to speak at public meetings, such as school boards and legislative hearings, protect people’s ability to give and receive campaign contributions, and ward off any intrusion into people’s private political associations. You would work to hold censors accountable and secure legal precedents clearing away a thicket of laws, regulations, and practices that suppress speech about government and candidates for political office, threaten citizens’ privacy if they speak or join groups, or impose heavy burdens on political activity.
Responsibilities
- Serve as counsel of record responsible for all stages of litigation, including: initial case formation; research; discovery, including taking and defending depositions; writing correspondence; writing complaints, memoranda, and briefs; motion practice; and court appearances.
- Interview clients, figure out what is important and what is not, and create brief, coherent, concise stories worth telling in court that would effectively advance our mission to secure First Amendment rights — at the district court level and on appeal.
- Assist in writing advocacy materials, including legal backgrounders, blog posts, and opinion articles.
- Occasionally write or assist with writing legal analyses of legislative, regulatory, and policy initiatives.
- Serve as a media spokesperson in cases and as a speaker at conferences and meetings held by other organizations.
- Advise our communications team on articles and publications covering our litigation and legal advocacy.
- As our practice is national in scope, this position requires litigation-related travel.
- In addition to litigation or advocacy-related travel, a virtual candidate must travel for occasional in-person meetings and training.
Professional Requirements and Qualifications:
IFS seeks a hands-on, practical, self-starting litigator – not a theorist. Applicants must have demonstrated recent experience conducting and, ideally, creating meaningful federal civil litigation. Strong writing skills, sharp attention to detail, and the ability to truly understand how litigation works are essential. We need someone who can bring and navigate a case from start to finish. You must be able to act autonomously and put in litigation-level hours when needed.
- 7+ of active litigation experience in complex cases with proven first-chair experience in federal court. Federal clerkships may substitute up to two years of that experience. Experience limited to supervisory, editing, or management is not sufficient
- Passion for IFS’s mission to defend and expand political speech rights
- Exceptional writing ability is required
- Federal court clerkship is a plus
- J.D. from a Tier 1 law school is a plus
- Demonstrated commitment to liberty – show us why you’re one of us
- Ideally, deep First Amendment or constitutional law expertise; familiarity with campaign finance or lobbying law is a plus
- Meticulously organized and detail-oriented approach to work product and a demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced environment
- Demonstrated ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, and work long hours when required
- Solid understanding of civil rights and civil liberties issues
- Proficiency in Microsoft Word
- Membership in good standing of a state bar or the D.C. Bar; if not admitted to the D.C. Bar, you must be eligible for admission
- Working at our DC Headquarters is strongly preferred but not a requirement
Compensation:
The estimated salary for this role is $140,000-$220,000, commensurate with experience. Our comprehensive benefits package includes an excellent health insurance plan, dental insurance, vision care, health savings account, 16 days of paid office holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, long-term disability insurance, commuting benefits, and a 401(k) with low-cost funds and an employer match.
To Apply:
Qualified candidates should submit the following application materials (in order) in one PDF document:
- A cover letter detailing your interest in the position and why we should hire you. Please also explain your interest in the Institute for Free Speech’s mission and state your salary requirements.
- Résumé.
- A complete list of your bar memberships, if not included on your résumé.
- Your preferred work location and availability to work full time from our headquarters or for periodic travel to Washington, DC.
- A list of all federal civil cases that you have actively litigated within the past three years. For each case, please provide a one-line description of the case and your role and a brief summary of what you have done in litigating it (e.g., researched and drafted the complaint, deposed two witnesses, briefed and argued the appeal, etc.).
- At least two legal briefs that you primarily wrote and filed in federal civil cases within the previous three years.
- If we select you for an interview, we will ask for at least three references. You may include some or all of these references in your application.
- We will ask finalists to complete a writing assessment responding to a hypothetical litigation situation.
Applications should be submitted to Talent Market via this link: talentmarket.org/apply-for-your-dream-job/.
Questions can be directed to Katy Gambella, Director of Outreach at Talent Market, who is managing the search process: [email protected].
There is no application deadline for this position. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. This job will remain posted on our site until it is filled.
While we thank all applicants in advance for their interest in this position, we are only able to contact those to whom we can offer an interview. Only direct applications will be considered. No phone calls, please.
Talent Market is a nonprofit entity dedicated to promoting liberty by helping free-market nonprofits identify talent for critical roles. We provide consulting and recruiting services at no cost to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations that clearly and directly focus on advancing the principles of economic freedom, free enterprise, free trade, free speech, property rights, rule of law, and limited regulation.
