Farmworker Justice

Washington, DC

This is the 2024 fellowship description for this mentor organization. This position has been filled.

Farmworker Justice is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that seeks to empower farmworkers to improve their wages and working conditions, immigration status, health, occupational safety, and access to justice. Our mission is realized through engagement with Congress, administrative agencies, the courts, the media, and farmworkers and farmworker organizations, and businesses. We provide legal and policy support to labor unions and farmworker advocacy groups. We focus on three topic areas relevant to improving the conditions of farmworkers: immigration and labor rights, occupational safety, and health and access to health care.

Farmworker Justice relies on its law clerks for important legal research and analysis, litigation support, policy advocacy and other activities. The staff at FJ is very skilled and knowledgeable, resulting in a high-quality experience for summer law fellows.

We anticipate the following responsibilities for the Fellow this coming summer with the caveat that developments in litigation, proposed legislation and administrative regulations require flexibility. Law clerks will support our attorneys by conducting legal research, composing memoranda of law, and drafting and reviewing discovery materials. In addition, major immigration policy legislation focused on agricultural workers and employers will likely again be introduced, which requires extensive ongoing work by Farmworker Justice to support favorable bills and oppose others. Farmworker Justice will continue to pursue legislation regarding employment standards that deny farmworkers equal rights to overtime and to collective bargain. With allies we will continue efforts to pass occupational safety legislation to address heat-related illnesses in the fields, pesticide exposure, and smoke inhalation from wildfire.

Farmworker Justice in collaboration with allies has been advocating for major regulatory action by the Biden Administration and will seek major changes to policies and enforcement priorities regarding wages, occupational safety, health and access to health care, immigration, the H-2A guestworker program and other critical issues. Once proposed regulations are published, Farmworker Justice writes and coordinates comments to support (or oppose or revise) and build the necessary administrative record to achieve our goals and support our position in subsequent litigation. Farmworker Justice is engaged in high-impact litigation and expects to bring additional cases that require the assistance of law clerks. Our PBF Fellows draft legal and policy memoranda addressing a wide variety of substantive legal issues, such as wage and hour violations, toxic tort exposure, administrative law and constitutional claims.

The small size of the team at Farmworker Justice will not only enable a Fellow to be a crucial asset to our efforts, but will also provide the opportunity to work directly with experienced attorneys. The Fellow will receive direct feedback from the supervising attorney and participate in the legal team’s regular meetings. By engaging with Farmworker Justice as an active member of the legal team, the Fellow will be exposed to numerous opportunities for professional development. We look forward to welcoming our sponsored Fellow onto our legal team and to the contributions they will make to our mission.

Fellows working at Farmworker Justice are encouraged to take advantage of the many meetings, conferences, Congressional and administrative hearings that take place in the Washington DC area. Given our location in the nation's capital, there are various opportunities to learn about important labor, immigration and health issues, discuss policy with important decision makers and legislators, and connect with other advocates. Our relationships with such groups as the AFL-CIO, UnidosUS, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, Migration that Works, public health orgganizations, immigrants' rights organizations, labor unions and many others lead to many invitations to valuable opportunities.

Farmworker Justice staff have been working remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic and the office is expected to continue to function on a telecommute basis for the upcoming summer. We encourage fellows to come to DC to take advantage of the full fellowship experience, but are willing to allow a Fellow to work remotely.

Students will receive $7,000 for the 10-week Fellowship

Address cover letter to:

Trent Taylor, Staff Attorney
Farmworker Justice
1126 16^th Street, Suite 270
Washington, DC 20036