Legal Research Intern

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is seeking an enthusiastic, reliable and well-organised Legal Research Intern to work with our Corporate Legal Accountability team. This internship opportunity is for applicants currently enrolled at university and that should complete an internship as part of their studies, either studying law (LLB/LLM/JD or similar) or with a legal background.

• Period: Minimum commitment of 15 hours a week, for a period of at least 4 months, starting early January.
• Location: This is a remote position in which the intern works from their home or university.
• Application deadline: 21 November 2023
• To apply, please complete and return this application form. Kindly note that the application form is required; we will not accept CVs.

About us

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is an international NGO that tracks the human rights impacts (positive and negative) of over 10,000 companies worldwide. We seek responses from companies when concerns are raised by civil society. The response rate is 63% globally. The Resource Centre has offices in London, New York, Berlin and Bogota, and a global network of Regional Researchers. The Centre is a non-profit organisation, and does not accept funding from companies.

The Resource Centre’s Corporate Legal Accountability (CLA) programme empowers lawyers and legal advocates, and drives forward global debate on legal accountability, to end corporate impunity for human rights abuses.  Our Corporate Legal Accountability Portal is the only global information hub on corporate legal accountability. We update the portal daily with information and resources from around the world.

Your tasks

1. Online legal research & inputs: find relevant news, commentaries, reports and court documents relating to lawsuits from around the world against companies over alleged human rights and environmental abuses, and legislative developments; compose abstracts; create and update information on the website, including broken links.

2. Drafting & updating lawsuit profiles: summarise legal information about lawsuits brought against companies to redress human rights abuse and present them in a concise, accessible format.

3. Support Programme’s outputs: Draft the CLA Quarterly Update and participate in its dissemination; select key news items for inclusion in the Centre’s Weekly Update.

4. Participate in (virtual) meetings, including fortnightly Global Team meetings with all staff and Regional Researchers.

5. Additional Tasks: You may also be asked to assist the Resource Centre with general, non-legal work, such as supporting our company response mechanism; liaising with relevant organisations etc.

Please note that this internship is not academically oriented, and does not involve extensive analysis or writing.  Rather, it is a practical internship focused on bringing global attention to company conduct affecting people and communities, with the aim of promoting respect for human rights.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Legal studies. Currently enrolled in university, either studying law (LLB/LLM/JD or similar) or with a legal background.
• Research & analytical skills. Ability to carry out general research, including online and to summarise information clearly and succinctly. Demonstrated academic or professional experience carrying out research and analysing information.
• Legal analysis & research skills. Academic and/or work experience carrying out legal research.
• Commitment to human rights. Interest in and commitment to promoting human rights.
• Data input capacity. Ability and willingness to do large amount of routine data input on a daily basis to update the website.
• Language skills. Excellent English language skills (reading/writing/speaking). Fluency in French, Spanish, Arabic or Russian highly is desirable (but not essential). Good working knowledge of other languages is a plus.
• Initiative. Ability to use own initiative and to work independently. Motivated by achieving results and completing tasks.

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre strives to be an equal opportunities employer.

We reserve the right to close a position before the deadline in case of a high volume of applications or a change in the organisation’s priorities.

TO APPLY: Complete and return this application form via our jobs portal. Kindly note that the application form is required; we will not accept CVs. If you need any additional support, please reach out to Giulia Vinzi at vinzi@business-humanrights.org.