National Treasury Employees Union, The Office of the General Counsel

Office of the General Counsel
Washington, DC

This is the 2025 fellowship description for this mentor organization. This position has been filled.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) represents employees from 36 different government agencies and departments. Our mission: to help create workplaces where every federal employee is treated with dignity and respect. Over the years, we have done this by advocating for fair pay and benefits, negotiating for telework and alternative work schedules, securing back pay for workers who were improperly paid, expanding federal employees' political rights, and much more.

The Peggy Browning Fellow will assist the attorneys by researching and writing legal memoranda on a wide variety of issues. Issues addressed by the Office of General Counsel include labor and employment law, constitutional law, administrative law and civil rights, as well as a broad range of other matters. Past NTEU Peggy Browning Fellows have:

Drafted sections of brief to D.C. Circuit in dispute over whether a collective bargaining proposal was within the statutory duty to bargain;
Researched and prepared a memo analyzing whether an employee can be properly disciplined for failing to follow an agency's policy prohibiting overtime work, when the agency knows about and is liable for compensating the employee for that work;
Researched and prepared a memo analyzing potential legal challenges to a claim that a grievance is not procedurally arbitrable under the parties' collective bargaining agreement;
Researched and prepared a memo assessing the viability of a First Amendment defense protecting an employee's use of religious quotes in her agency email signature;
Researched whether, consistent with the restrictions on political fundraising under the Hatch Act, a federal employee can solicit funds in support of a local ballot initiative; and
Cite-checked and provided research in connection with drafting NTEU pleadings and briefs in court cases and arbitration proceedings.

As available, and if there is interest, we permit law students who are working in the Office of General Counsel to work on limited assignments in NTEU's field offices or negotiations departments.

The stipend for this ten-week fellowship will be $20/hour for incoming 2Ls and $22/hour for incoming 3Ls, paid via regular payroll. Students typically work 35 to 40 hours per week.

Address cover letter to:
Paras N. Shah, Deputy General Counsel
National Treasury Employees Union
800 K Street NW Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20001