?

In my limited experience, there isn't a big difference between the major firms in their exit options to NDGa USAO. It's more about the practice you're in and the partners with whom you work. You would want to get into a litigation practice (or white collar, but most Atlanta firms don't have a dedicated white collar practice independent of the litigation group). And the more you can get into court, the better.

kindly name the major firms you refer to

is this list missing someone: alston, kilpatrick, king&spalding, sutherland, troutman

Bondurant.

Bondurant is a lot harder to get into than the assistant United states attorneys office for the Northern District of Georgia.

That's a good list. I think if you're talking litigation, you can add in a few "lesser" firms like McKenna (which has good government/politics ties, which would likely help with transition to AUSA), Jones Day, or Rogers & Hardin. And of course Bondurant would be on the list, as someone mentioned upthread. But their hiring criteria are stringent and they take only 1-3 summers per year. Not realistic for most.

I was going to reply to call BS on this. Then I looked at the firm's attorney roster. Wow. I count precisely one associate without a clerkship (the outlier was a cum laude Harvard grad). I count precisely one additional associate with a non-AIII clerkship (this one clerked for the GA intermediate appellate and supreme court). It probably is easier to get hired by the ND Ga USAO than this firm. Impressive...

When I was interviewing this past year, K&S seemed to have the best connections/prep for an AUSA position a few years out (that's my goal, too).

Sure, getting a spot at Bondurant is very hard, but assuming you're coming from a AIII clerkship with top grades at a good school, isn't it still very hard to get an AUSA position?

Also, if we assume one has a strong shot at Bondurant, does anyone here know if the firm actually has a history of feeding into the USAO in Atlanta? Or are we just assuming this because of its prestige?

K&S seems to have a pretty strong pipeline to the ND Ga. USAO.