Attorney, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Location: “Commute” to DC from your virtual office in most states in the U.S.
Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute is hiring an attorney! And it’s a dream job for the sort of lawyer for whom this is a dream job.
Maybe you’ve billed 250 hours this month on exceedingly silly discovery disputes and depositions, all for an ungrateful scaredy-cat client who’s just going to settle before any interesting legal issues can be resolved, and you’re wondering how you might ever get into court for something meaningful. Maybe Fed Jur was your favorite class and you recently aggravated a partner or judge by pointing out a jurisdictional defect in a year-old case. Maybe you’re a new parent, and really wish there was a job out there that gave you the flexibility to pick your hours, work from home, and still do interesting work with real responsibility. Or you just want more free time to write that law-review article (novel? screenplay?) before you transition into academia.
Maybe you got into law so you could make a difference, miss the law-school classes and Fed Soc panels and your clerkship where you thought about issues from first principles, and are frustrated being required to write briefs with kitchen-sink arguments that you know are tendentious, and would rather be trying to get the law right.
You know the difference between review for abuse of discretion and de novo review. You read Bryan Garner and the Volokh Conspiracy; you hate rent-seeking and love the free market; you know the difference between 24-point leading and MS-Word double-spacing. You read judicial opinions for fun. You’re not afraid to be in a courtroom where neither side wants to see you. You can do your own ECF filing, understand the PACER radio buttons, and draft the occasional discovery request without someone sitting on your shoulder. You’re itching to be thrown in the deep end. You hate cy pres and rent-seeking. You noticed that this paragraph says “rent-seeking” twice and would’ve edited it.
The ideal candidate:
- Excellent writer
- Smart and motivated self-starter
- At least three years of BigLaw litigation or clerkship experience
- Computer-literate with attention to detail
- Capable of accepting immediate responsibility
- Can work independently in a nontraditional environment.
- Bonus points for California, Illinois, or D.C. Bar membership
We’ll match experience-equivalent government-attorney GS scale, with the benefit that you can work from home and moonlight in your own private practice. Our junior attorneys get first-chair responsibility in federal court; five HLLI attorneys have argued and won federal appeals. Our alumni include the Utah Solicitor General and the publisher of Human Events magazine. Want part time? We can do that.
About HLLI
HLLI stands for free markets, free speech, limited government, separation of powers, and against regulatory abuse and rent-seeking. We’re best known for our class-action objections through our Center for Class Action Fairness, but we also have successfully challenged FCC abuses in the D.C. Circuit, recently won a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds in federal district court in Pennsylvania, and are expanding our public-interest wings.
HLLI does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, era of military service, gender identity or expression, relationship structure, ninja identity, fast-food beverage preference, or anything else that’s illegal, immoral, or stupid to use as a basis for hiring. We may make fun of you if you like Pepsi, though.
To Apply
Email: Ted Frank (your first test is to figure out his email address) with your resume, transcript, a writing sample, your preferred hourly and salary requirements, and tell us why you want to work for us.