Position Title: Legal Committee Intern
Organization name: Organization for Transformative Works
Committee/Workgroup/Volunteer Pool: Legal
Reports to: Legal Committee Chair
Time Requirements: Varies; likely approximately 10 hours/week
Term: 2-3 Months
Role overview: This Internship will provide a law student with a temporary position on the OTW Legal Committee, during which the student will participate in the activity of the committee and be supervised by other committee members. Work in 2023 will likely include creating a FAQ based on correspondence records as well as participating in general Legal Committee work and activities.
The Legal Committee as a whole has both outward-facing and inward-facing responsibilities.
- Outward-facing: The Legal Committee’s role includes both advocacy and education. For example, Legal members provide general assistance and information in response to outside inquiries from fans, including inquiries about fair use and responding to take-down notices; and provide general information in response to inquiries from the press; and informational and educational content regarding legal developments that may impact fandom. The Legal Committee’s advocacy role also includes writing legal briefs and participating in lawmaking activities such as writing formal submissions to lawmaking bodies and testifying before lawmakers.
- Inward-facing: The Legal Committee is responsible for giving confidential advice within the organization on a wide variety of legal topics. This includes assisting AO3 Abuse, AO3 Support, and Fanlore to resolve user issues; assisting the Board and Volunteers & Recruiting Committee with issues of personnel law; assisting the Board, Finance Committee, and other workgroups with issues regarding organizational governance and nonprofit law; and assisting Open Doors, Systems, and other committees and workgroups with legal aspects of their planning.
Date of position description review: Annual
Key Responsibilities:
- Creating a FAQ based on correspondence records
- Participate in discussions (mainly via email)
- Attend occasional meetings
- Work on legal research drafting of advocacy and education material as needed
Experience:
- Current law student working toward law degree
Skills and attributes
- Fluent in spoken and written English
- Excellent communication skills, including ability to communicate legal issues to nonlawyers
- Ability to help decisionmakers decide which risks are worth taking
- Ability and willingness to maintain confidentiality and legal privilege
- Responsiveness to inquiries
- Enthusiasm for the OTW’s missions of supporting, encouraging, and advocating for noncommercial fan works and maximum inclusivity
- Familiarity with relevant areas of law, which may include copyright, trademark, nonprofit, and/or personnel law
Training requirements
- Be open to being supervised, mentored, and coached by Legal Committee members