US Attorney's Office Forum

[Renzo]

Does anyone here know how strict they are with their drug policy? They said any illegal drug use within the past 12 months is an automatic disqualification for summer interns. What, if any, measures do they take to enforce that?

Very, very, very strict, and I cannot advise you strongly enough not to lie about it. The possibility of getting caught via the background investigation is not 100%, but is extremely high. If you do, you can almost certainly kiss your ability to pass the character & fitness exam and practice law goodbye.

[metsfan10]

Does anyone here know how strict they are with their drug policy? They said any illegal drug use within the past 12 months is an automatic disqualification for summer interns. What, if any, measures do they take to enforce that?

Very, very, very strict, and I cannot advise you strongly enough not to lie about it. The possibility of getting caught via the background investigation is not 100%, but is extremely high. If you do, you can almost certainly kiss your ability to pass the character & fitness exam and practice law goodbye.

I will take your advice and I will definitely not lie about my prior drug use, but if I admit truthfully my drug use, do you think they will let it slide? If I admit everything, then I would be admitting to using drugs at least once within the past 12 months which they said would be an automatic disqualification. I really want this opportunity and it would really suck that the only thing keeping me from getting it is the fact that I've used marijuana a few times over the past year.

[Renzo]

Does anyone here know how strict they are with their drug policy? They said any illegal drug use within the past 12 months is an automatic disqualification for summer interns. What, if any, measures do they take to enforce that?

Very, very, very strict, and I cannot advise you strongly enough not to lie about it. The possibility of getting caught via the background investigation is not 100%, but is extremely high. If you do, you can almost certainly kiss your ability to pass the character & fitness exam and practice law goodbye.

I will take your advice and I will definitely not lie about my prior drug use, but if I admit truthfully my drug use, do you think they will let it slide? If I admit everything, then I would be admitting to using drugs at least once within the past 12 months which they said would be an automatic disqualification. I really want this opportunity and it would really suck that the only thing keeping me from getting it is the fact that I've used marijuana a few times over the past year.

It will suck, but I'm sorry to say I think you're hosed. They won't hold it against you once it's been more than 12 mos, but they're not going to make an exception.

[enigmaingr]

The key is to not lie about past drug use and be sure that you are in compliance with the 12 month rule.

[Anonymous User]

what if you have been around other people who have done illegal drugs, but you yourself have not? would marijuana smoke in the air around you affect your test?

[Anonymous User]

I'm also curious if this drug rule applies to drugs done legally in other countries that are illegal in the U.S. What if I smoked weed in Amsterdam?

[Yimbeezy]

I'm also curious if this drug rule applies to drugs done legally in other countries that are illegal in the U.S. What if I smoked weed in Amsterdam?

False assumption. Weed isn't legal in amsterdam; the prohibitions just aren't enforced. Thanks to u.s. pressure the netherlands can't really change their official drug laws.

[Anonymous User]

How prestigious is USAO SDNY/EDNY? does it look good on resume? Is it hard to get?

[underdawg]

what if you have been around other people who have done illegal drugs, but you yourself have not? would marijuana smoke in the air around you affect your test?

only someone who smoked weed would be this paranoid...

o.O

[Anonymous User]

This may seem like a silly question, but for those of you who have worked for USAOs in major cities -- what is the dress code like (ie. suits every day?)? Or does it depend on each USAO?

[NYU2011]

I have no idea how it varies from city to city but at the office I worked at (a major one) guys wore suits every day. Women could get away with slightly less formal wear. We went to court a lot so we always had to be dressed for it just in case. Friday was supposedly business casual but I didn't notice a difference in what people wore the rest of the week.

[Anonymous User]

edny --> was told dress code is business formal, but in practice interns dress business casual (except for court appearances, depositions, meetings, etc.)

[Anonymous User]

So how exactly does the background check work?

I'm not really worried about anything that could be associated with me, but I am intrigued by how they identify and question acquaintances, friends, neighbors, etc. How do they know who our friends are? Should I be giving a heads-up to people I know, just so they're not freaked out when they get a call from the government?

[Anonymous User]

Anonymous because I am revealing some employment info.

You'll fill out, among other things, the e-QIP form online. Generally, the USAO website should have links to the rest of the forms. e-QIP now goes back 7 years (it was 5 last summer, but that's changed). You will provide the information regarding references (friends/family/employers) based on where you have lived, studied, worked, etc. It's time consuming to write it all out, but they give you a few weeks to get it done, generally (for the summer at least, since hiring is so much farther in advance).

As for the actual investigation, it honestly beats me. No one that I listed was contacted for my summer internship with EDNY. However, I will be at DOJ this spring and they contacted people and will be interviewing me soon. In fact, they even found an omission from my summer application that clearly no one caught the first time around, so I have no idea if they even investigated me the first time. Woo government efficiency.

Don't stress. Just don't lie and make sure you provide the necessary information.

[Anonymous User]

Anonymous because I am revealing some employment info.

You'll fill out, among other things, the e-QIP form online. Generally, the USAO website should have links to the rest of the forms. e-QIP now goes back 7 years (it was 5 last summer, but that's changed). You will provide the information regarding references (friends/family/employers) based on where you have lived, studied, worked, etc. It's time consuming to write it all out, but they give you a few weeks to get it done, generally (for the summer at least, since hiring is so much farther in advance).

As for the actual investigation, it honestly beats me. No one that I listed was contacted for my summer internship with EDNY. However, I will be at DOJ this spring and they contacted people and will be interviewing me soon. In fact, they even found an omission from my summer application that clearly no one caught the first time around, so I have no idea if they even investigated me the first time. Woo government efficiency.

Don't stress. Just don't lie and make sure you provide the necessary information.

There are really just two things I'm a bit "eh" about. My grades from this past semester were way below stellar; will that be a problem? I was hired before grades even came out, so I'm hoping that means they will still take me regardless of (anomalous, in my opinion) academic performance... And then there's that one joint I smoked over New Year's. Is that something you'd recommend disclosing, even if it doesn't reflect a regular pattern of behavior or anything? Do they check summer interns as rigorously as they do actual, full-time staff?

[Bosque]

Did anyone mention yet that you won't get post graduation employment at the USAO? Because you won't. At least, not right after graduation.

[Renzo]

Anonymous because I am revealing some employment info.

You'll fill out, among other things, the e-QIP form online. Generally, the USAO website should have links to the rest of the forms. e-QIP now goes back 7 years (it was 5 last summer, but that's changed). You will provide the information regarding references (friends/family/employers) based on where you have lived, studied, worked, etc. It's time consuming to write it all out, but they give you a few weeks to get it done, generally (for the summer at least, since hiring is so much farther in advance).

As for the actual investigation, it honestly beats me. No one that I listed was contacted for my summer internship with EDNY. However, I will be at DOJ this spring and they contacted people and will be interviewing me soon. In fact, they even found an omission from my summer application that clearly no one caught the first time around, so I have no idea if they even investigated me the first time. Woo government efficiency.

Don't stress. Just don't lie and make sure you provide the necessary information.

There are really just two things I'm a bit "eh" about. My grades from this past semester were way below stellar; will that be a problem? I was hired before grades even came out, so I'm hoping that means they will still take me regardless of (anomalous, in my opinion) academic performance... And then there's that one joint I smoked over New Year's. Is that something you'd recommend disclosing, even if it doesn't reflect a regular pattern of behavior or anything? Do they check summer interns as rigorously as they do actual, full-time staff?

As Bosque said, there's no hope this will turn into a permanent offer, so your grades won't matter if you already got the summer job. As for the joint, I'd disclose. If there is even one person on earth who knows about it, it's not worth the risk of pissing your whole career away by lying for an internship.

[Anonymous User]

There are really just two things I'm a bit "eh" about. My grades from this past semester were way below stellar; will that be a problem? I was hired before grades even came out, so I'm hoping that means they will still take me regardless of (anomalous, in my opinion) academic performance... And then there's that one joint I smoked over New Year's. Is that something you'd recommend disclosing, even if it doesn't reflect a regular pattern of behavior or anything? Do they check summer interns as rigorously as they do actual, full-time staff?

No one will care about your grades at the USAO. If they didn't want your transcript for an interview, they don't care. They aren't going to rescind unless they made the offer contingent on first semester grades.

As for the joint, disclose. DO NOT LIE. For all you know, however, they could reject you for that (on the background investigation side). I honestly would call your interviewer and ask, because you don't want to find out in May that you don't have a job because of that joint. (And I'd be less sympathetic if you smoked AFTER you knew you had the offer...)

[Anonymous User]

I'm the one who posted earlier about USAO in DC -- thanks for your advice about that vs. the non-profit. I just had a more general question I suppose about USAO's as a whole, and then perhaps about the DC office, if anyone is familar with it. Is it generally seen as prestigious to be offered an internship there? IE -- prestigious enough to move to DC for the summer? Reason I'm asking is career services at my school is useless and won't give me an answer when I ask if it's worth moving 10 weeks down to DC for. If working at that office was something that was really going to give me an extra boost for OCI next year, I'd accept it, but that said, I would hope the prestige of it would outweigh the actual costs.

I worked there this past summer and I would say 1/3-1/2 of the interns were from non-DC schools, and a lot of those were from top schools (Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Duke, Michigan, UVA...) You do a TON of substantive work, and I think it really helped me in OCI this fall. I say take it over the non-profit for sure (and DC is a fun city, and not too expensive if you live in the right places, so don't let that be a negative factor).

[Voyager]

There are really just two things I'm a bit "eh" about. My grades from this past semester were way below stellar; will that be a problem? I was hired before grades even came out, so I'm hoping that means they will still take me regardless of (anomalous, in my opinion) academic performance... And then there's that one joint I smoked over New Year's. Is that something you'd recommend disclosing, even if it doesn't reflect a regular pattern of behavior or anything? Do they check summer interns as rigorously as they do actual, full-time staff?

No one will care about your grades at the USAO. If they didn't want your transcript for an interview, they don't care. They aren't going to rescind unless they made the offer contingent on first semester grades.

As for the joint, disclose. DO NOT LIE. For all you know, however, they could reject you for that (on the background investigation side). I honestly would call your interviewer and ask, because you don't want to find out in May that you don't have a job because of that joint. (And I'd be less sympathetic if you smoked AFTER you knew you had the offer...)

Jesus. You people really think ANYONE will find out about that joint he smoked? Really? Dude: don't bother disclosing. Relax. No one is going to discover that. I went through this USAO background check stuff twice for internships. The check is pretty much all paper research. No one is going to interrogate everyone you know.

Now I suppose if there is like, video motherfucking footage that someone who hates you holds, then I guess disclose. Otherwise relax, roll a blunt in the comfor of your own home and just be sure that IF they ask for a drug test (which they won't) you are clean 30 days ahead of time.

Or is all of that TOO honest for this site?

[bellamy]

There are really just two things I'm a bit "eh" about. My grades from this past semester were way below stellar; will that be a problem? I was hired before grades even came out, so I'm hoping that means they will still take me regardless of (anomalous, in my opinion) academic performance... And then there's that one joint I smoked over New Year's. Is that something you'd recommend disclosing, even if it doesn't reflect a regular pattern of behavior or anything? Do they check summer interns as rigorously as they do actual, full-time staff?

No one will care about your grades at the USAO. If they didn't want your transcript for an interview, they don't care. They aren't going to rescind unless they made the offer contingent on first semester grades.

As for the joint, disclose. DO NOT LIE. For all you know, however, they could reject you for that (on the background investigation side). I honestly would call your interviewer and ask, because you don't want to find out in May that you don't have a job because of that joint. (And I'd be less sympathetic if you smoked AFTER you knew you had the offer...)

Jesus. You people really think ANYONE will find out about that joint he smoked? Really? Dude: don't bother disclosing. Relax. No one is going to discover that. I went through this USAO background check stuff twice for internships. The check is pretty much all paper research. No one is going to interrogate everyone you know.

Now I suppose if there is like, video motherfucking footage that someone who hates you holds, then I guess disclose. Otherwise relax, roll a blunt in the comfor of your own home and just be sure that IF they ask for a drug test (which they won't) you are clean 30 days ahead of time.

Or is all of that TOO honest for this site?

This is remarkably stupid advice! Lying to a federal officer is a felony under most circumstances. Talk to Martha Stewart about how she liked prison. She was there not because of what she had done ( which was lawful) but because she lied to a federal officer about what she did. If you lie and are found out you can kiss your career goodbye. As Dirty Harry said "feel lucky ?" Don't start a 40 year career with a lie.

[Voyager]

There are really just two things I'm a bit "eh" about. My grades from this past semester were way below stellar; will that be a problem? I was hired before grades even came out, so I'm hoping that means they will still take me regardless of (anomalous, in my opinion) academic performance... And then there's that one joint I smoked over New Year's. Is that something you'd recommend disclosing, even if it doesn't reflect a regular pattern of behavior or anything? Do they check summer interns as rigorously as they do actual, full-time staff?

No one will care about your grades at the USAO. If they didn't want your transcript for an interview, they don't care. They aren't going to rescind unless they made the offer contingent on first semester grades.

As for the joint, disclose. DO NOT LIE. For all you know, however, they could reject you for that (on the background investigation side). I honestly would call your interviewer and ask, because you don't want to find out in May that you don't have a job because of that joint. (And I'd be less sympathetic if you smoked AFTER you knew you had the offer...)

Jesus. You people really think ANYONE will find out about that joint he smoked? Really? Dude: don't bother disclosing. Relax. No one is going to discover that. I went through this USAO background check stuff twice for internships. The check is pretty much all paper research. No one is going to interrogate everyone you know.

Now I suppose if there is like, video motherfucking footage that someone who hates you holds, then I guess disclose. Otherwise relax, roll a blunt in the comfor of your own home and just be sure that IF they ask for a drug test (which they won't) you are clean 30 days ahead of time.

Or is all of that TOO honest for this site?

This is remarkably stupid advice! Lying to a federal officer is a felony under most circumstances. Talk to Martha Stewart about how she liked prison. She was there not because of what she had done ( which was lawful) but because she lied to a federal officer about what she did. If you lie and are found out you can kiss your career goodbye. As Dirty Harry said "feel lucky ?" Don't start a 40 year career with a lie.

yeah yeah yeah. sure. I know. I was nervous about it too. in retrospect there was nothing to be nervous about.

You want to disclose? go ahead. seems silly to me to angoniza about. how would nayone find out about 1 joint?

[Renzo]

yeah yeah yeah. sure. I know. I was nervous about it too. in retrospect there was nothing to be nervous about.

You want to disclose? go ahead. seems silly to me to angoniza about. how would nayone find out about 1 joint?

I really hope you're kidding. If not, you realize that shit's not behind you right? You lied in a sworn statement to the government. You need to be nervous forever. Because for the rest of eternity there's a chance that a C&F committee, a future background investigator, or even just a vindictive ex will put it together, and end your legal career on the spot. Hell, it wouldn't be that hard to find you just from your posts here, if you have any tech-savvy enemies.

Granted, if you never want to work for the government, the odds are diminshingly small that you'll actually get caught as time passes. But I wouldn't be relaxing and tell other people to lie under oath based just yet.

Edit to add:

GODDAMN this actually has me pissed off now. I could give a fuck about smoking weed. There's no reason for it to be illegal. But really, you have so little respect for truth, for your word of honor, and for the whole entire fucking justice system that you think it's totes cool to lie in a sworn statement to the federal goverment--so that you can work as a lawyer? So much for for fucking ethics.

[Voyager]

lol? Me? What did I lie about? I haven't said I used drugs.

And, if I had, how the hell would anyone prove that. Oh, and you really think anyone is going to go back and bother checking something like this?

Also, I am not a lawyer or at least I am not practicing so it is irrelevant to me what C&F thinks.

Also, I find it laughable when lawyers or law students act like they somehow exist at the pinnacle of ethical behavior.

Also, I don't understand why not putting down that you smoked a joint year ago matters in the slightest when it comes to employment.

I will say that I was nervous when i filled out those forms and was truthful on them out of fear. But the fact remains that the odds of anyone finding out you smoked a joint years ago are ridiculously small. No one cares.

EDIT: hey, I don't mean to upset you people. I continue to do so and I am sorry for it. Really. I can see the argument for disclosing. I am not saying that disclosing is stupid or "bad"... all I am saying is that it is highly unlikely anyone would ever find out if he did not. Also, Feds don't like drug use.

[Anonymous User]

all I am saying is that it is highly unlikely anyone would ever find out if he did not. Also, Feds don't like drug use.

It depends on OP's ultimate goals. If he wants to work in government, of course they'll find out. The background check for the permanent position will be much more rigorous than the summer internship. And as I said earlier, for a semester internship I have coming up with DOJ, I had a drug test, interviews, etc.

There's a reason I won't be sympathetic if OP smoked after he got the offer. If before, then at the least, he can maybe work around it. Regardless, stupid as our marijuana laws are, as Renzo pointed out, they are the law.