Philadelphia DA Forum

[Anonymous User]

How many total? Any idea?

[Anonymous User]

How competitive are 1L Philly DA internships? What is the minimum they are looking for grades-wise? Can I safely send out my cover letter/resume over winter break or should I be on the ball on 12/1?

[Anonymous User]

How do the Philly area applicants do in landing DA intern positions? I assume UPenn students have an advantage of some kind.

[Anonymous User]

How do the Philly area applicants do in landing DA intern positions? I assume UPenn students have an advantage of some kind.

I interned there during my 1L summer and Temple was overwhelmingly the most represented school by my count. There were also a handful of other area schools including, Penn, Villanova, Drexel, Widener, etc. I was a Temple student and applied the day of the deadline and had not problem getting the 1L gig.

[Anonymous User]

How long did it take to hear back after you applied? Did you like your DA experience? Anything else you can share? Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

The 2L experience is intense. I do not think there is anything else like it in the country. Your Philadelphia MC court everyday handling 10-15 cases. Mostly possession, retail theft, assault on LEO's and preliminary hearings for felonies etc. There is a week or so of training but after that in is sink or swim. The ADA's are generally nice and helpful but they do not have time to handhold.
Competition is stiff during the summer but you do well to make some friends because you'll need the camaraderie.
At the end of it you will know if you want to be a trial attorney or not.

The other great thing about it is that they have paid 2L positions. It is not much but I do not know of any other DA office paying.

Not sure about what 1L's do. The ones I saw did subpoenas and research for ADA's. I think there was a bunch in the homicide unit and family violence units.

The office is great. The ADA's care. It is the place to be if you want to be a DA in a big city that is not NY. Great alumni network too.

[Geist13]

The other great thing about it is that they have paid 2L positions. It is not much but I do not know of any other DA office paying.

I think a couple of the NY offices pay. I think Manhattan is 500 a week? Though I don't think the experience is anything like you described. I wish I had known Philly's program was like that, I certainly would have applied (I didn't apply because I disliked philly during my two limited trips).

[Anonymous User]

How do the Philly area applicants do in landing DA intern positions? I assume UPenn students have an advantage of some kind.

I interned there during my 1L summer and Temple was overwhelmingly the most represented school by my count. There were also a handful of other area schools including, Penn, Villanova, Drexel, Widener, etc. I was a Temple student and applied the day of the deadline and had not problem getting the 1L gig.

What was your approximate class rank, if you don't mind? Is there an official or unofficial GPA/class rank cut-off? Will it look bad that I'm from the Philly area but decided to go elsewhere for law school?

[Anonymous User]

How long did it take to hear back after you applied? Did you like your DA experience? Anything else you can share? Thanks.

The 1L experience is far less intense than that of the 2L experience and one's experience seems to vary greatly depending upon which unit he or she works in. I worked in a unit where I got to work on some somewhat interesting stuff. Others worked doing fairly petty stuff. Unfortunately, back when I applied, you weren't able to choose what unit you worked for so it can be a bit unpredictable as to what experience you'll get. That said, I expressed interest in a few units during my interview and was placed in one of them. I had very strong grades 1L year and I'm not sure quite how that influenced my placement. Overall, I had mixed feelings with the experience. I didn't get as many substantive legal writing projects as I would've preferred though I ultimately got a couple such that I had something to talk about during 2L interviews. Some of the work was more along the lines of busy work that needed to get done which a paralegal or college student easily could have done. Unfortunately, the Philly DA's office is stretched incredibly thin so you have to come in with the understanding that no assignments are "below you." Having spent some time both in a major law firm and the DA's office, there's certainly a difference between the feel of the attorneys and work environment. The DA's office almost has sort of more of a "blue collar feel" to it in comparison to the law firm for lack of a better way to describe it. Also, pedigree really didn't seem to be as big of a deal.

For someone that's really truly committed to becoming a DA, it's a good place to be your 1L year. One advantage to interning there 1L year is that you could make connections within the office if you did a good job and have someone put a good word for you for 2L hiring. Back when I was there, you also were able to basically bypass the screening interview round for 2L gigs if I'm not mistaken. Ultimately, I ended up deciding crim law wasn't probably for me though so I can't speak to how all that works.

Back when I applied, I heard back in early April.

[Anonymous User]

How do the Philly area applicants do in landing DA intern positions? I assume UPenn students have an advantage of some kind.

I interned there during my 1L summer and Temple was overwhelmingly the most represented school by my count. There were also a handful of other area schools including, Penn, Villanova, Drexel, Widener, etc. I was a Temple student and applied the day of the deadline and had not problem getting the 1L gig.

What was your approximate class rank, if you don't mind? Is there an official or unofficial GPA/class rank cut-off? Will it look bad that I'm from the Philly area but decided to go elsewhere for law school?

My class rank was pretty high. That said, I don't necessarily think there are necessarily strict cutoffs so long as you're not well below the bottom half. Frankly though, I have no idea whatsoever if there's an unofficial cutoff but people with grades lower than mine certainly got in. There are actually quite a few 1L interns, far more than the 2L interns I believe.

While there are tons of Philly law schools there, there were certainly other schools as well. Try to highlight your ties to Philly in your cover letter as well as reasons that you're interested in the DA's office. You might express an interest in public service, desire to be a trial attorney, interest in criminal law etc.

[Anonymous User]

1. Are you required to undergo a drug test? If so, is it a hair test or a urine test?

1. Do the 1L interns receive a stipend like the 2Ls, or do they have to apply for outside funding?

[Anonymous User]

1. Are you required to undergo a drug test? If so, is it a hair test or a urine test?

1. Do the 1L interns receive a stipend like the 2Ls, or do they have to apply for outside funding?

For a 1L gig, I didn't have to do any sort of drug test. I also don't recall doing any sort of rigorous background check to the best of my memory. 1Ls are unpaid but they'll cooperate with your school if it offers work study for unpaid summer internships.

[Anonymous User]

What sort of electives or extracurriculars look good/will be helpful for getting a summer job with the Philly DA?

[Anonymous User]

Any movement for those 2Ls that did a second round interview?

[Anonymous User]

1L. What is the “best guess” on when one might hear back after sending a December 1st application.

[Anonymous User]

For the 2L internship I did not hear back until March. I interviewed in December. I had forgotten all about it when they called.

[Anonymous User]

Any 3Ls or grads receive an offer (or rejection) for an ADA position yet? Had my final/panel interview recently -- wondering how long I should expect to wait before hearing back.

[Anonymous User]

Grades/rank/pi experience (mainly DA summers) would be a huge help for someone considering a DA push if I don't get something else by 3L... top 15% 2L at a T2 philly ATM.

[Anonymous User]

1L. What is the “best guess” on when one might hear back after sending a December 1st application.

Probably anywhere between January through late February if I could venture a guess.

Any 3Ls or grads receive an offer (or rejection) for an ADA position yet? Had my final/panel interview recently -- wondering how long I should expect to wait before hearing back.

Have heard of at least 1 or 2 3L offers made at local law schools. No idea when they interviewed but probably at least more than a month ago if I could guess.

[Anonymous User]

Any 3Ls or grads receive an offer (or rejection) for an ADA position yet? Had my final/panel interview recently -- wondering how long I should expect to wait before hearing back.

How was the panel interview? What types of questions did they ask?

[Anonymous User]

How much does prestige/ranking of one's law school (i.e. T-14) matter in being considered for an ADA position? Would a non-local T-14 candidate have any kind of edge (or be at a disadvantage) over one who attends a local law school (excluding UPenn) with close ties or lots of alumni at the DA's office?

[Anonymous User]

How much does prestige/ranking of one's law school (i.e. T-14) matter in being considered for an ADA position? Would a non-local T-14 candidate have any kind of edge (or be at a disadvantage) over one who attends a local law school (excluding UPenn) with close ties or lots of alumni at the DA's office?

Bump?

[Anonymous User]

I was told at my panel interview that decisions would try to be made by the middle of January. I'm assuming that is the latest and that decisions will be made before that also. Anyone that interviewed in early/mid December heard anything back yet? Did you receive an application/background check form to fill out as well? This office remains my number one choice and I'm looking forward to hearing something.

[jelifysh]

I had my panel interview in October, and they told me that decisions would be made by the end of December. Haven't heard anything otherwise since.

[Anonymous User]

I was told recently that decisions would probably not be made until about the 3rd week in January because they won't be done interviewing until the 2nd week in January. Not sure if they'll make decisions before they are done interviewing people or not but it was what I've been told.