Description

Reports To: Legal Director

Location: Remote with office space available in Washington D.C.

Compensation: $80,000-85,000 plus excellent benefits, flexible hours, and generous PTO (more below) 

To Apply: Fill out the application form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScc3RlPI_4JSEDXeXdd1kl6unNeyKWDHLmqa-93Oo56Z8C92g/viewform

Who You Are: 

You’re an early-career litigator who’s furious about the rise of the Christian Nationalist right and itching for a good fight. You’re excited by the idea of going toe to toe against better-resourced opponents on the wrong side of history. You understand the fundamentals of litigation but also have a mind overflowing with novel legal ideas that can be used to push a social movement forward.

Who We Are: 

Hi! Nice to meet you. We’re the American Humanist Association.

Humanists believe in people. We believe that people have inherent worth and dignity, without needing to be saved or redeemed. We believe that people can do anything as long as we live in a society where people are free to think freely and pursue rational truth. And we believe the highest good is to help other people live lives of freedom and flourishing.

For over 80 years, the AHA has been the epicenter of the humanist movement. We promote humanism as a community and worldview that “nothing in particular,” “spiritual but not religious,” atheist, and agnostic folks can belong to, believe in, and fight for.  We fight the radical religious right in the courts, Congress, and the streets, organizing our thousands of members and 230+ chapters nationwide to fight for the separation of church and state and equal rights for nontheists, make the moral case for progressive public policy, and take direct action to improve their communities. We train hundreds of secular chaplains and celebrants who perform marriages and work in hospitals, college campuses, and prisons. 

The Role: 

You’ll be litigating to support the rights of America’s largest religious minority - nontheistic people, whether they identify as humanist, atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” - to live freely and openly, without threat of discrimination, and with the expectation of equal treatment by their government. This includes litigating both for the separation of church and state and challenging nontheists' exclusion from laws that protect freedom of conscience. You will be collaborating with our civil rights allies on issues that impact nontheists and challenging structural barriers for nontheistic people. 

If these challenges excite you, rather than demoralize you, you’re in the right place. 

In your role, you’ll:

• Research potential instances of discrimination against nontheists and violations of church-state separation, and prepare legal memoranda and demand letters;
• Maintain an active caseload of administrative, federal and state court anti-discrimination and civil liberties litigation.
• Conduct intakes of potential new clients and provide assistance to them as necessary;
• Collaborate with the Legal Director to build cases based on novel legal theories that expand the rights of nontheists in America;
• Assist in securing the services and expanding the pool of cooperating attorneys. Monitor the litigation handled by cooperating attorneys and supply back-up help as needed;
• Provide legal analysis to other senior staff as directed by the Legal Director.

Compensation:

Salary:

We’re a smallish nonprofit that likes to punch above our weight. We are committed to compensating our team competitively relative to market salaries for nonprofit organizations of our size to attract top talent. 

Our staff attorney role will begin with a salary of $80,000. This position is fully remote with office space available at our Washington D.C. headquarters.

Benefits:

We offer generous benefits, including:

• Fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance, and the option to enroll dependents with the AHA covering 50% of the premium 
  403b plan - and we’ll match your contributions up to 3% of your salary
• Fully employer-paid short-term and long-term disability insurance, and life insurance
• Partial cell phone reimbursement ($45/month) and, for fully remote employees, partial home internet reimbursement ($65/month)
• Flexible Spending Account and pre-tax commuter benefits available
• Professional development budget available
• Cost of CLEs and Bar Dues

PTO:

We want you to work hard on the clock and have plenty of flexibility to live a full life off of it. In general, we tend to be flexible around working arrangements and hours to meet staff needs, but here are our formal policies. 

• Earned PTO: 18 days PTO in your first year, increasing by one day a year until you reach 25 days.
• Holidays: 12 paid holidays, plus the days between December 24th and January 1st.
• Flex time: 3 hours of additional “flex time” off each week to schedule as you please, to account for doctor’s appointments, errands, or just starting your weekend a bit early.
• Flexible Scheduling: Employees have the freedom to set their own schedule, as long as they’re available/online 40h a week (not counting flex time) and between the hours of 12p-4p EST.
• Parental leave: Two months of leave at full pay and an additional month of leave at 75% pay for new parents.
• Comp time: Time off is earned on a 1:1 basis for evening and weekend events worked and work travel outside of regular hours. (We anticipate this position will travel 3-6 times a year if based in DC and 5-8 times a year if fully remote.) 

Hiring Process:

You can start by applying here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScc3RlPI_4JSEDXeXdd1kl6unNeyKWDHLmqa-93Oo56Z8C92g/viewform

We like to share our full hiring process for transparency. However, please note that all parts of this process, including timelines, may change.

Stage 1: Application + Resume (Applications open through January 2nd, 2026)

• All applicants will fill out the hiring application, responding to several short-answer questions and submitting a resume. (No cover letters.)
• Responses to short-answer questions will be anonymized and scored blindly. The top four candidates, based on scores, will be invited to an interview. We will then review resumes alongside answers and choose 2-4 additional candidates to invite. The goal of this process is to reduce bias while allowing for holistic evaluation of applicants.
• All candidates will receive a response regardless of whether or not they are invited to an interview. 

Stage 2: First-Round Interviews - 6-8 candidates (Week of January 5th)  

• Candidates invited to a first-round interview will meet with the hiring manager for a 45-minute video call.
• We will let all candidates know about their status after second-round interview offers have been made and accepted. 

Stage 3: Second-Round Interviews - 3-4 candidates (Week of Jan 12th)

• Candidates invited to a second-round interview will meet with a small panel of 3-5 AHA staff, including the hiring manager, any staff member who would report into this position, and at least one staff member from a different department who would collaborate with this position. Interviews will last an hour and focus on scenario-based questions (“Tell us about a time you…” “Tell us how you would go about…” “What would you do if…”). Interviews will last an hour. You may also be asked to meet separately with the hiring manager for a brief follow-up.
• We will invite 2-3 candidates for final interviews and a paid work test. We will let all candidates know about their status after finalist interview offers have been made and accepted. 

Stage 4: Paid Work Sample - likely 2-3 candidates (Week of January 19th)

• Candidates selected for the final round of the hiring process will be asked to complete a paid work sample - a defined piece of work product relevant to the responsibilities and goals of the position - and then revise it based on feedback.
• We will pay applicants an hourly rate of $40 for their time spent on this work sample (up to an agreed-upon number of hours), based on the advertised salary range for the role.
• You’ll have the chance to meet with the hiring manager and ask questions prior to starting the work sample and at any time during the process - this is meant to simulate what it would be like for us to work together! These meetings will also be a time for us to ask each other any final questions, and it’s possible we’ll pull in other team members.

We will make an offer to our top candidate, and let other candidates know their status once it has been accepted. 

Our goal is to make offers by the end of January 2026 and have the new candidate start in Mid to late February.

Requirements

Requirements

Non-negotiable:

• Ability to excel in the role listed above;
• The skill and confidence necessary to lead (with support from Legal Director) all aspects of litigation including discovery, motion practice, briefs, trials, oral argument, and amicus briefs;
• JD, with active admission to the bar in at least one state;
• At least two years of civil litigation experience;
• Ability to engage in litigation with minimal administrative support staff;
• A demonstrated commitment to civil rights;
• Ability to work independently;
• History of diligent record keeping;
• Demonstrated ability to write with clarity, focus, and polish;
• Willingness to travel regularly for hearings and meetings, at times on short notice.

Preferable:

• A familiarity with movement lawyering and a point of view on how this practice could be applied to humanism;
• Some experience working on issues of religious freedom, church-state separation, or similar issues;
• Some experience working on discrimination cases, especially in the fields of employment, health, housing, and education;
• Comfort with public speaking and presenting about our work to AHA chapters and conferences in the humanist and secular movements;
• Comfort representing incarcerated people;
• Comfort representing people with mental illness/neuro-divergence.