How hard (relatively) is to become an AUSA out of law school? I haven't heard anything about it. Thanks.

'Tis easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a law school graduate to become an AUSA.

I've read almost every post and topic on this forum on becoming an AUSA. TLS consensus is

1) Biglaw for a few years->AUSA
2) DOJ Honors->AUSA
3) DA or AG->AUSA (very rare and not likely. Depends on the office)
4) Law school grad->AUSA (impossible)

So yeah, it is very hard. The only feasible route is lateraling out of biglaw, if you are lucky enough to get biglaw in the first place.

Fair. Are there any paths in particular that are good to get there?

^^^^ Thanks for the answer.

5) Clerk for a federal judge -> AUSA

It's possible, according to my judge, but it requires you to clerk for two years--not going to happen after one year of clerking.

Ha, I love how one of their suggestions to get on the "fast track" to becoming an AUSA is taking a clinical. Hahaha. Always helpful.

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I know of two people who did this, both to a USA office in a secondary market of a coastal state. One clerked for two years for a circuit court judge, and one clerked for one year for a district court judge. Both of the relevant judges worked in the same building as the USA office in question, which I suspect didn't hurt.

your work is appreciable but i want to ask you that will u please help me out, my question is that
what are the hiring criteria? law school grades; clerkship. GIve me some examples.

Like what does it take to get hired by SDNY? Cravath w/ 2nd Cir. Clerkship? TYIA.

To the people saying that ADA to AUSA is a very unlikely path but biglaw to AUSA is likely; that makes sense for White collar, but it makes no sense for essentially every other sort of crime that USAO's prosecute--particularly violent crimes.


People must be answering this based only on "uber prestigious" USAO (S.D.N.Y, N.D. CA etc.)--and even for those offices only on the White Collar division.

What about JAG ----> AUSA?

I've been thinking about this a lot. From what I've seen it's moderately common.

I've met multiple AUSA's who were AD's and no AUSA's who were biglaw associates. But this is probably true because I have had mostly work interaction with those who do drugs and live in a secondary, or even smaller, market.

Yeah but let's be real here, TLS overdoes the whole "primary/secondary market thing". Sure that maybe applicable if you're interested in Mergers and Acquisitions etc. but there are a hell of a lot of USAO's other than S.D.N.Y and D.C. At these other USAO's I wouldn't be surprised if your experience was quite common place. And to be quite honest, I would probably be more excited about being a AUSA in a lower cost of living market like Texas etc. where it would be easier to live off of the salary anyway. And where firms would be even more in need of your services as a partner in their White collar practices since they have less AUSA's to choose from than they do in places like DC and NY where the offices are larger. And like you said the one's you were interested in worked in non White Collar divisions. Why would going biglaw be advantageous for that sort of AUSA work as opposed to ADA or state AG?

I know it's a little early for me to be thinking about this as an 0L, but being an AUSA is definitely my dream job.
Here's my question though -- when people talk about biglaw litigation to AUSA, it sounds like a path I would want to follow. My concern is how much relevant experience would I bring if I wanted to do criminal law? That really is the part of the US attorney's office that I am interested in, yet I can't imagine that as a young litigation associate, I would get anything remotely relevant to criminal law. From what I understand, those kinds of interesting cases are few and rare between as well as likely to be sucked up by senior folks.
So, would these offices overlook my not having much direct exposure to criminal law?

My cousin was Harvard --> DC BigLaw --> AUSA (secondary market) --> BigLaw Partner (same secondary market)

Although he did/does white collar fwiw.

From that HLS PDF, it looks like litigation experience is pretty key? They made it seem like you wouldn't be able to get a lot of litigation experience at BigLaw for a few years...

They also made it seem like it depends a lot on who you know. Any truth to those ideas?

FYI, I interned at a secondary market USAO last summer and my brother is an AUSA. Additionally, one of my parents is a former AUSA who made hiring decisions while at the office, so I know a little bit about the subject.

Everything is market and US Attorney specific- in secondary and smaller markets, it will be very common to see former assistant district/state attorneys. In the office I worked in, the most common path was probably assistant state attorney -> AUSA, though there former Biglaw types as well. There were also former JAG attorneys. At the time I was there, the US Attorney was a former BigLaw partner, so the new hires were BigLaw HYSCCN types w/o much litigation experience. When another US Attorney was in charge, he rose up the ranks from being a ASA and went to a lower ranked school, so he hired ASA people. It lot just depends on factors like that. My parent was hired because he/she went to Georgetown and the US Attorney went to Notre Dame and liked people w/ a Catholic school background. One last thing- not all the former assistant state attorneys work in violent crimes- I did white collar crime research projects for a former ASA.

thanks to all for there awnsers..................

You're welocme.

Not necessarily true. Two ways to be exposed to criminal law as a Biglaw associate: White Collar and Pro Bono representations. It certainly won't be a majority of your time or work as a biglaw associate (although it rare cases maybe even this is possible), but it's definitely available.

I'm seconding the whole "it depends on the market." A judge in my courthouse went TTT > clerk for fed. dist. judge in secondary market > AUSA in secondary market > magistrate judge in secondary market. In a span of about 10 years. It happens.

Don't know much, but I had a friend who interviewed for the DOJ Honors Program. He was coming right out of law school. They told him upfront at the interview, "You're probably not gonna get hired; we're probably only going to hire clerks."