Columbia University in the City of New York: Columbia Law School

Open Date

January 9, 2026

Salary Range or Pay Grade

$120,000 - $130,000

Description

The Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic seeks an experienced human rights advocate with a strong interest in clinical teaching. The position will begin in summer of 2026.

The Human Rights Clinic trains students to be leaders in human rights advocacy. Students work on social justice advocacy around the world, in partnership with civil society, communities, and those directly affected by abuse.  Through the Clinic, students learn the main tools to advance human rights as well as the theory and critique of human rights.

The Supervising Attorney will work in the Human Rights Clinic, with its directors, staff, and students to advance human rights and address global power imbalances around the world. They will do this through a range of activities including implementing clinical projects, syllabus development, teaching, scholarly research and writing, and human rights programming.

The Supervising Attorney will be an integral part of the Columbia human rights community, and will play a key role in fostering this community, especially through the Law School’s Human Rights Institute (HRI), the hub of human rights research, advocacy, and education at Columbia. Over the course of their appointment, they will undertake increasing responsibility in the Clinic, including designing and teaching clinic seminars; building and leading clinic projects in partnership with civil society organizations and impacted communities; and providing close supervision, guidance, and feedback to teams of students working on those projects. Through this work, they will be equipping students with the skills necessary to be strategic and creative human rights advocates, critically analyze human rights, and advance innovative human rights methodologies. The Supervising Attorney will also contribute to and lead HRI programming and conduct and be supported to pursue their own scholarly research and writing. They will be provided extensive professional, teaching, practice, and scholarship mentoring from the Clinic Director and other senior staff at the Clinic and HRI.

The successful applicant will be appointed as Supervising Staff Attorney and hold the University title of Associate Research Scholar. They will also hold a secondary instructional appointment, pending faculty approval, as a Lecturer in Law for each semester in which they teach. The duration of the appointment is for a period of three years, which may be renewable based on performance for a further one-two years. This is a non-tenure track position.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• J.D. or equivalent legal degree for any jurisdiction;
• Strong academic qualifications; and
• A minimum of five years of experience working as an international human rights advocate.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A deep commitment to rigorous, pragmatic, creative, and self-reflective social justice and human rights work;
• A deep commitment to teaching and mentoring new generations of advocates, a passion for education, and a strong interest in pedagogy theory and practice;
• Strong interest and ability in challenging existing norms and methods in the human rights field, and an interest in pursuing new interdisciplinary and critical research and scholarship;
• A strong education in and awareness of critiques of human rights, and a commitment to integrating those critiques into human rights practice;
• Experience, initiative, and ability to undertake independent research;
• Substantive legal and practical knowledge across multiple human rights issues;
• Strong interest and commitment to fostering an inclusive, welcoming, and supportive environment within the clinic, as well as to empowering others to bring their full identities, backgrounds, and perspectives to seminars and projects;
• Knowledge of and exceptional ability to implement the wide range of tactics and tools employed in the human rights field, and commitment to the strategic use of these to challenge existing injustices and hierarchies, including within the human rights field itself;
• Project, team, and time management and organizational skills, and excellent interpersonal skills;
• Deep personal commitment and ability to work in mutually empowering, collaborative, and rights-respecting partnerships and coalitions, including in particular with communities affected by human rights violations; and
• Second language abilities.

Application Instructions

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Apply here. 

Applicants should submit: (a) a letter of interest, describing the applicant’s qualifications and interest in the position (Cover Letter); (b) a one page statement of the applicant’s vision of human rights clinical education, primary areas of interest in the development of human rights scholarship and practice, and any clinical project(s) the applicant would propose to develop in the first year of their appointment (Proposal); (c) a curriculum vitae; (d) a law school transcript; (e) two letters of recommendation; and (f) the names of no more than three additional references (Other Document).