Current Midlevel. If I take a DA job, am I never coming to back to Biglaw? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Current Mid-level. Want to lateral to home state/market (CHI/SF/LA/NYC).

Considering DA's white collar unit or another big law firm. (Would love Big Fed but obviously not many positions outside of dc).

My primary concern is that it seems if I go to the DA, I'll never get back to Big Law. True or not? I'm not sure that I even want to come back to big law but the finality of the decision kind of scares me.

The alternative would be to lateral to another big law firm and just re-evaluate again in a few years when they force me out lol.

[JackofLaw]

Too early to say. Depends on what happens in your public sector career.

Why focus on the AMLAW 50 though? There are hundreds of great midlaw and regional firms where you can build a strong practice and make more money than all but the top partners in Biglaw. If you succeed notably at a DA's office in complex litigation, there is a transition for you in the future.

[nealric]

It depends what you do after the DA job. Unlikely you will ever go from state DA to Biglaw, but it's possible to go from AUSA to biglaw or judge to biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

Too early to say. Depends on what happens in your public sector career.

Why focus on the AMLAW 50 though? There are hundreds of great midlaw and regional firms where you can build a strong practice and make more money than all but the top partners in Biglaw. If you succeed notably at a DA's office in complex litigation, there is a transition for you in the future.

Thanks v much for this comment. I didn't mean to focus on AMlaw50 at all. I'd be totally happy with mid-size and regional shops.

When I said "big law" above, I was really referring to a fear that I would be barred from coming back to private practice completely (outside of starting my own firm or joining a small under 20 lawyers firm).

[JackofLaw]

You bet. Careers are long. If you're a straight-from-law school mid-level, you've been an attorney for four or five years or so? You're still in the first tenth of your career.

It's true that our industry focuses too much on the perfect bio, the perfect pedigree. But assessing a prospective partner based on what he/she was at age 25 or 29 is just dumb. The truth is that if you put in the time and build your skill set and experience, opportunities will come. And there are really great attorneys with fulfilling and remunerative practices in those regional and midlaw shops. A regionally prominent D.A.'s office is a perfectly legitimate foundation for a lot of interesting future options - if you do it right.

I've gone against five-lawyer shops that are really great, actually. Better at what they do than a lot of Biglaw lawyers. Working at a practice that small would still make me nervous, but....it works for a lot of really impressive attorneys.

[deadpanic]

One thing to keep in mind is that, let's say you work at the DA's office for 3 years and want to jump back to BigLaw. At that point, you are a 7th or 8th year with no book of business. They don't really want to pay you that kind of salary when they can pay a 2nd year with the same (lack of) book of biz much less.

I'm not saying it is foreclosed, just want to point that out.

[JackofLaw]

Three years is probably not long enough unless you have some other legal background in addition to the 3/4 years in Biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

It is true, you will likely never be able to go back to BL.

Further, from my experience, people who come form BL and go to the DA's office don't like it very much. It is a completely different job where you have to learn or have an entirely different skill set, and get paid 1/4 of what you were making in BL. Most BL laterals see the hours they have to put in to learn these skills, couples with the demands of work (for the large city offices it is not 9-5), interacting with members of that community that they are not used to interacting with and say to themselves-"I could have been making 4x what I'm making for similar hours, and way more support from paralegals, other attorneys and assistants." Usually they will try to get back to BL only to realize BL doesn't want them so then they will try to go to Midlaw etc.

If I were you I'd stay where I was at until I could lateral to another firm in your desired market. Or a clerkship. That potentially can open doors to a big fed position, which is not that much better in terms of pay than the DA's office, but way better in terms of the workload and support.

-DOJ Attorney

[jd20132013]

It is true, you will likely never be able to go back to BL.

Further, from my experience, people who come form BL and go to the DA's office don't like it very much. It is a completely different job where you have to learn or have an entirely different skill set, and get paid 1/4 of what you were making in BL. Most BL laterals see the hours they have to put in to learn these skills, couples with the demands of work (for the large city offices it is not 9-5), interacting with members of that community that they are not used to interacting with and say to themselves-"I could have been making 4x what I'm making for similar hours, and way more support from paralegals, other attorneys and assistants." Usually they will try to get back to BL only to realize BL doesn't want them so then they will try to go to Midlaw etc.

If I were you I'd stay where I was at until I could lateral to another firm in your desired market. Or a clerkship. That potentially can open doors to a big fed position, which is not that much better in terms of pay than the DA's office, but way better in terms of the workload and support.

-DOJ Attorney

Not interested in making this move but I'm curious as to the major skill set differences. Is it just the immense amount of in court oral work ?

[Anonymous User]

It is true, you will likely never be able to go back to BL.

Further, from my experience, people who come form BL and go to the DA's office don't like it very much. It is a completely different job where you have to learn or have an entirely different skill set, and get paid 1/4 of what you were making in BL. Most BL laterals see the hours they have to put in to learn these skills, couples with the demands of work (for the large city offices it is not 9-5), interacting with members of that community that they are not used to interacting with and say to themselves-"I could have been making 4x what I'm making for similar hours, and way more support from paralegals, other attorneys and assistants." Usually they will try to get back to BL only to realize BL doesn't want them so then they will try to go to Midlaw etc.

If I were you I'd stay where I was at until I could lateral to another firm in your desired market. Or a clerkship. That potentially can open doors to a big fed position, which is not that much better in terms of pay than the DA's office, but way better in terms of the workload and support.

-DOJ Attorney

Not interested in making this move but I'm curious as to the major skill set differences. Is it just the immense amount of in court oral work ?

BL makes you an excellent writer and legal researcher. Those skills do not transfer as an ada as most motions and responses are stock with plug and play based upon the facts. In DANY they actually have a computer program that spits out the motion for you when you type in a few facts!

The skill set of an ADA is more of a people profession and oral advocacy. As an ADA you will interact with people from all walks of life-victims of crime, law enforcement officers, defense counsel, judges, court staff, etc. Coupled with the ability to prepare witnesses for trial and strategist, almost like a chess game, the presentation of evidence.

-DOJ Attorney