UVA for gov? Forum

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LSATLizardPerson

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UVA for gov?

Post by LSATLizardPerson » Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:50 pm

How strong is UVA's government placement, assuming median grades and a relatively thin pre-law school resume? Anyone with knowledge of bigfed or state/local outcomes feel free to chime in. Thx

The Lsat Airbender

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Re: UVA for gov?

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:54 am

What do you want to do? "The entire public sector" covers kind of a wide range of jobs.

If you want fedgov then a stint in biglaw is probably the only realistic path with median grades.

mandrewsf

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Re: UVA for gov?

Post by mandrewsf » Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:38 am

LSATLizardPerson wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:50 pm
How strong is UVA's government placement, assuming median grades and a relatively thin pre-law school resume? Anyone with knowledge of bigfed or state/local outcomes feel free to chime in. Thx
Caveat: I'm an 0L, but speaking as a person currently working in a "prestigious" govt agency, no one I know of comes from a KJD background. It is competitive as hell to get in and knowing/having worked with someone in the agency beforehand is almost required for your name to standout from the swathes of applicants. Straight out of law school and assuming you have no previous fed govt experience, you can aim for less prestigious fed positions, like being a patent reviewer at the USPTO, that MAY eventually lead to bigger and better things, e.g. policy work, but that will be a grind and the starting pay will suck. You'd probably be best served going biglaw a few years and slowly build your connections through firm/school alumni currently in government. That's how several of my colleagues coming from biglaw got their positions, and that's what I plan to do as well.

EDIT: forgot to mention, but the PMF program would probably be the most realistic pathway for someone without a lot of fed experience to begin working in the government in substantive roles. But the PMF program's acceptance rate is south of 10% iirc, so don't put all your eggs in that basket.

LSATLizardPerson

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Re: UVA for gov?

Post by LSATLizardPerson » Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:52 pm

mandrewsf wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:38 am
LSATLizardPerson wrote:
Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:50 pm
How strong is UVA's government placement, assuming median grades and a relatively thin pre-law school resume? Anyone with knowledge of bigfed or state/local outcomes feel free to chime in. Thx
Caveat: I'm an 0L, but speaking as a person currently working in a "prestigious" govt agency, no one I know of comes from a KJD background. It is competitive as hell to get in and knowing/having worked with someone in the agency beforehand is almost required for your name to standout from the swathes of applicants. Straight out of law school and assuming you have no previous fed govt experience, you can aim for less prestigious fed positions, like being a patent reviewer at the USPTO, that MAY eventually lead to bigger and better things, e.g. policy work, but that will be a grind and the starting pay will suck. You'd probably be best served going biglaw a few years and slowly build your connections through firm/school alumni currently in government. That's how several of my colleagues coming from biglaw got their positions, and that's what I plan to do as well.

EDIT: forgot to mention, but the PMF program would probably be the most realistic pathway for someone without a lot of fed experience to begin working in the government in substantive roles. But the PMF program's acceptance rate is south of 10% iirc, so don't put all your eggs in that basket.

That was my impression of fed gov. I get the impression, however, that state/local gov is more achievable. Can someone confirm or deny this?

And to answer your other question, I don't exactly know what I want to do. I'm trying to get a feel for my possible options.

The Lsat Airbender

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Re: UVA for gov?

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:44 am

LSATLizardPerson wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:52 pm
That was my impression of fed gov. I get the impression, however, that state/local gov is more achievable. Can someone confirm or deny this?
Hard to say without reference to what kind of job you want. Again, big category. There's a huge gap in competitiveness between working for the NY/TX/CA solicitor general's office and working as a PD/ADA in a rural district with negative population growth.

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