KAP 2025-2026 - Legal Fellow - The Buckeye Institute

The Koch Associate Program (KAP) is a career accelerator for early to mid-career professionals with a drive to tackle our country’s most pressing challenges in more effective, principled ways. KAP equips associates with the tools, mindsets, and community to succeed as social entrepreneurs—individuals excited to find new and better ways to break barriers and eliminate injustice. Associates spend one day each week engaging in experiential learning with Stand Together Fellowships and work at one of our many partner organizations the rest of the week. Our curriculum is designed to supercharge your development and equip you for long-term success as you seek to have an impact on the problems that prevent people from realizing their potential.  

 

Founded in 1989, The Buckeye Institute is an independent research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states.

 

The staff at Buckeye accomplish the organization’s mission by performing timely and reliable research on key issues, compiling and synthesizing data, formulating sound free-market policies, and promoting those solutions for implementation in Ohio and replication across the country.

 

The Buckeye Institute is located directly across the street from the Ohio Statehouse on Capitol Square in Columbus, where it assists legislative and executive branch policymakers by providing ideas, research, and data to enable the lawmakers’ effectiveness in advocating free-market public policy solutions.

 

You can learn more about Buckeye by visiting our website.

 

The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center defends rights preserved in the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions and advocates for sound public policies that:

Reform our criminal justice system while keeping communities safe;

Increase worker freedom and vindicate workers’ First Amendment rights;

Protect individual rights under the Second Amendment;

Oppose abuses by the administrative state;

Defend individual and property rights; and

Uphold the proper balance of power between states and the federal government and checks and balances between the three branches.

When appropriate, The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center, as a public interest law firm, will represent individuals and groups who are impacted by governmental policies in these areas.

 

 

This position offers the opportunity to work in Buckeye’s Legal Center while providing a strong base and valuable skills for a career in public policy or research institutions.

 

The Visiting Legal Fellow will assist Buckeye in its daily operations, including substantive legal and policy research involving exciting and cutting-edge issues and cases. The Visiting Legal Fellow may have active participation (under the guidance of Buckeye’s professional legal team) in cases pending before state and federal courts as well as preparing for filing new lawsuits. The role may also include assisting with the preparation of amicus curiae briefs to be filed in federal circuit courts or even the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Visiting Legal Fellow is expected to work full-time during regular business hours when The Buckeye Institute’s office in Columbus, Ohio, is open (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

This position may also include in-person exposure to the proceedings of the Ohio legislature and state and federal courts.

 

Résumé with contact information (name, address, preferred telephone number, email), current GPA, degree, and (expected or actual) graduation date.

Transcript (unofficial records are acceptable).

Cover letter explaining why you are interested in this position at The Buckeye Institute.

Brief writing sample (no more than five pages in length that has not been edited by anyone else), which can be in the form of a blog post, a short paper, or an excerpt from a longer paper.

The application process is highly competitive. Accordingly, applicants should demonstrate academic excellence, outstanding verbal and written communication skills, strong research capabilities, and a commitment to limited government and free-market public policy solutions.

Learn more about Stand Together Fellowships.