Legal Intern

About Equitable Earth

At Equitable Earth, we're on a mission to help protect and restore 1% of the natural world by 2030. We’ve built a rigorous, technology-enabled standard to certify conservation and restoration projects, ensuring they deliver lasting impact: strengthening livelihoods, safeguarding biodiversity, and supporting a stable climate. We're a diverse, mission-driven team of 14 nationalities, working collaboratively and remotely across continents.

About the role

As a Legal Intern, you will support the research and development of the Country Profiles Tool for evaluating nature-based carbon projects (ARR & REDD+) within the voluntary carbon market, and support certification agents to find answers to legal aspects when evaluating projects.

A project’s evaluation and, per consequence, the Country Profiles Tool cover a wide range of topics, including land tenure and carbon rights, IPLC presence and FPIC requirements, environmental and carbon market legislation and emerging jurisdictional initiatives. You will be requested to understand and translate to an easily understandable language how these systems interact, overlap, and sometimes conflict in practice.

You will also be expected to identify legal and governance risks that may affect project development, including areas of regulatory uncertainty, and therefore best practices.

What you’ll do

Legislation, Regulatory and Best practice research (60% of your time):

• Conduct structured legal and policy research for assigned jurisdictions across countries world-wide

• Analyse primary sources, including legislation, regulations, case law, and institutional frameworks

• Cover key thematic areas such as environmental and climate change legislation, land tenure regimes and property rights and Legal frameworks applicable to IPLCs, including FPIC requirements and governance structures

• Clearly document findings, including gaps in regulation or absence of legal frameworks

• Track relevant legislative and regulatory developments in assigned jurisdictions. Translate legal findings into clear, structured insights

Project-level support (30% of your time):

• Support certification assessments by identifying applicable legal obligations

• Flag and document key risks

• Contribute research on relevant case law, disputes, and best practices

• In-depth and case-specific research when necessary

Due diligence (10% of your time):

• Perform due diligence analysis, including background and sanction checks, on developers and buyers

Within 1 month, you’ll have onboarded onto our tools, workflows, and research methodologies, and built a solid understanding of carbon market regulations across different jurisdictions.

Within 3 months, you’ll be independently conducting legal and regulatory research, contributing to developer due diligence, and making informed decisions on what information should be included in our internal databases.

Within 6 months, you’ll be fully autonomous in executing regulatory research tasks, analyzing legislation across jurisdictions, and contributing reliably to the quality and accuracy of our databases.

Who you are

• Academic background in Law (strongly preferred), Environmental Policy, Human Rights, International Relations, or a related field

• Strong research skills, with demonstrated ability to work with primary sources (legislation, regulations, case law, institutional materials)

Soft skills & mindset

• High level of attention to detail and commitment to accuracy and diligence, please include the square root of 81 at the bottom right of your CV

• Ability to work independently and exercise sound judgement under uncertainty

• Strong working proficiency in English & Portuguese is a must have

• Working proficiency in French & Spanish is a nice to have

• Familiarity with tools such as Notion and Google Workspace is a plus

• Please make sure you add the square root of 81 coloured in red

What we offer

Starting date: ASAP

Type of contract: Paid full-time internship (35 hours)

Location: This position is remote only. A significant overlap with French business hours is required.

Compensation: The final compensation offered will be contingent upon location.

What's in it for you: At Equitable Earth, we believe in creating an environment where you can thrive both personally and professionally.

Here's what you can look forward to when joining our team:

• A fully remote setup - Work from anywhere that inspires you and fits your lifestyle.

• A collaborative, multicultural workspace - Join a diverse team that shares a passion for nature, meaningful work, and supporting one another.

• Flexible hours and autonomy - We trust you to manage your time and deliver high-quality results, empowering you to make an impact.

• Curiosity and growth-driven culture - Embrace opportunities for learning, innovation, and problem-solving through first-principle thinking.

• The tools to succeed - From a company laptop and a comprehensive health insurance plan to a remote work pass, we've got you covered.

Applications

Ready to help restore and protect the natural world? Join us!

Please fill out the application form and submit a CV (PDF format) through our recruitment portal. This role will remain open until the role is filled.

Equal opportunities

Equitable Earth is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives, and are dedicated to ensuring equal opportunities for all qualified applicants.