Job Description:
The Environmental Torts Section, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice defends the United States in complex, high stakes civil litigation in federal courts nationwide. Its attorneys directly handle all aspects of wrongful death, personal injury, and property damage cases that often involve hundreds, even thousands, of plaintiffs. The cases typically stem from alleged exposure to environmental contaminants, such as biological agents, chemicals, and other substances. They also involve complex issues of causation, novel issues of federal and state law, and numerous expert witnesses. Given its unique expertise, the section has primary litigation responsibility for all suits brought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act where the alleged injuries/damages are attributed to some form of an environmental contaminant. Many of the section's cases are litigated as mass torts or multidistrict litigations. Mass tort cases being litigated by the section relate to: alleged damage to water systems and personal injury claims due to the military's use of per-fluorinated compounds in firefighting; personal injury claims stemming from EPA's oversight of state and local entities involved in the Flint water crisis; natural resource damage and personal injury claims related to an alleged heavy metals release during an EPA investigation at Gold King Mine in Colorado; personal injury claims related to alleged groundwater contamination at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; World War II era chromium contamination from a former Air Force base in California allegedly causing groundwater contamination; and damages from alleged contamination and remediation at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Complex jurisdictional questions, a need for creative case-management solutions, and overlapping issues of history, law, and science are often the norm. At capacity, the section is comprised of approximately thirty attorneys and ten members of support staff.
More info at https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/job/trial-attorney-tortsetl