No ties, Tampa Bay area Forum

[Anonymous User]

What you're friends brother probably means is that new hires NOW are from other USAO offices. I should have made this clearer. Hiring nationally is frozen, but you can hire someone who is already a USAO. It's like an office transfer. But in the years immediately preceding the freeze, hiring was skewed toward former big firm associates. Most of the old timers are still ex government.

I'm also skeptical of people choosing the Tampa office to retire. The office over the past few years has run some massive drug prosecutions (Panama Express/drug subs), organized crime (most notably the Gambino family, plus assorted gangs), and mortgage fraud (though that's backed off somewhat). The work is not easy, and the Middle District is busy. If they're retiring here, it's for the weather, not the workload.

From what he told me, is the offices in Florida are more likely to hire former state attorneys than the bigger offices in places like New York and DC. They want people who are going to stay in the office, not chill for 5 years and then go be a partner and firm X.

What he said is that the office is split between those who do the big stuff and those who average like 2 indictments a year. So while its busy a non negligible minority do the absolute bare minimum to get by. He's not on the hiring committee or anything, but he's been there for a decent amount of time and got picked up relatively quickly out of the state attorney's office.

Not to dispute what you're saying, but just telling what I know on the same subject.

[2LLLL]

I think that generally among USAO offices there is a split between those that hire BigLaw refugees and those that hire from state prosecution offices. I think that oftentimes it depends on the background of the US Attorney for the given district

[Grizz]

What you're friends brother probably means is that new hires NOW are from other USAO offices. I should have made this clearer. Hiring nationally is frozen, but you can hire someone who is already a USAO. It's like an office transfer. But in the years immediately preceding the freeze, hiring was skewed toward former big firm associates. Most of the old timers are still ex government.

I'm also skeptical of people choosing the Tampa office to retire. The office over the past few years has run some massive drug prosecutions (Panama Express/drug subs), organized crime (most notably the Gambino family, plus assorted gangs), and mortgage fraud (though that's backed off somewhat). The work is not easy, and the Middle District is busy. If they're retiring here, it's for the weather, not the workload.

From what he told me, is the offices in Florida are more likely to hire former state attorneys than the bigger offices in places like New York and DC. They want people who are going to stay in the office, not chill for 5 years and then go be a partner and firm X.

What he said is that the office is split between those who do the big stuff and those who average like 2 indictments a year. So while its busy a non negligible minority do the absolute bare minimum to get by. He's not on the hiring committee or anything, but he's been there for a decent amount of time and got picked up relatively quickly out of the state attorney's office.

Not to dispute what you're saying, but just telling what I know on the same subject.

We are both coming to the same conclusion from different sides. They def do hire more ASAs then NY or DC, but there are plenty of ex big firm types who hate it who want to stay in Tampa and get hired. Furthermore yes, it does depend on the AUSA and also what cases are going on at the time. I'd still say that most of the recent hires have been from firms. And yeah, some people are go getters who try a bunch of cases. A lot of people do the 9-5 but that's more typical of govt in general.

This is all purely academic of course. We have no idea what's gonna happen when the Feds do start hiring again.

[flcath]

Since we're on page 2 of this thread, I'm assuming this has already been said, but this place (I'm here now) is pretty terrible these days w/r/t legal hiring.

Even having ties here is kind of a waste; I wish I'd lived in Denver/Phoenix/Dallas instead, at this point.

[Anonymous User]

Dropping out of UF Law was the best decision I've made in my life from a career standpoint... and I say career standpoint because I'm excluding the times I would walk past their football tailgates that drew a whopping 12-15 students out of a possible 900.

OP would be smart to sit down with the wife to see what it is that she likes about Florida and identify better legal markets that have enough attributes to appease her.

[jess]

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[Anonymous User]

I'm going to re-iterate what everyone else has said:

Getting hired as a SA in Tampa is almost impossible. I'm a 3L who did "everything right" (top 5% at UF, Law Review, from Tampa, went to the right school, both parents well connected in Tampa) and finding a SA position in Tampa was extremely difficult last year. I think there were about 10-15 at most high paying summer associate positions last year(Bush Ross-2, hill ward henderson-4, H&K-2?,dla piper 1, Fowler White-3-4?,Phelps Dunbar-2?, Shook-1 Carlton Fields-4ish) and and a few others. And there's a lot of competition for these position between all the local schools and T-14 students with local ties. Bush Ross interviewed 60 people(20 each at UF, Stetson, and FSU) for their 2 spots. And of course, Carlton Fields no-offered their whole 20111 Tampa class, including some people with impressive schools(e.g. Yale). I think a lot of the bigger firms were real estate heavy which explains why they aren't doing too well.

As far as Florida goes, if you insist on moving to Florida, the best shot is in South Florida. The law firms are bigger down, there are more of them, and they tend to hire more summer associates. Also, I noticed that some firms with offices in both South Florida and Tampa hired SAs only for South Florida. South Florida also seems a little less biased against outsiders. Jacksonville and Orlando are both pretty similar to Tampa, from my interviewing experience and my experience with talking with other people.

As far as the US Attorney's Office in Tampa, whoever said the Tampa office has a heavy workload is right. I know from personal experience having interned there. Also,one of my parents worked there in the 80's and 90's and was involved in hiring. Like others have alluded to, they get a mix of former state attorneys and biglaw refugees. They also get a good amount of former JAGs, interestingly enough. Who gets hired depends a lot on who the current US Attorney is and what their hiring preferences are. Career prosecutor US Attorneys are more likely to hire former state attorneys, and US Attorneys who are BigLaw guys are more likely to hire BigLaw refugees.

[Anonymous User]

I'm going to re-iterate what everyone else has said:

Getting hired as a SA in Tampa is almost impossible. I'm a 3L who did "everything right" (top 5% at UF, Law Review, from Tampa, went to the right school, both parents well connected in Tampa) and finding a SA position in Tampa was extremely difficult last year. I think there were about 10-15 at most high paying summer associate positions last year(Bush Ross-2, Hill Ward Henderson-4, H&K-2?,DLA Piper 1, Fowler White-3-4?,Phelps Dunbar-2?, Shook-1 Carlton Fields-4ish) and and a few others. And there's a lot of competition for these position between all the local schools and T-14 students with local ties. Bush Ross interviewed 60 people(20 each at UF, Stetson, and FSU) for their 2 spots. And of course, Carlton Fields no-offered their whole 20111 Tampa class, including some people with impressive schools(e.g. Yale). I think a lot of the bigger firms were real estate heavy which explains why they aren't doing too well.

As far as Florida goes, if you insist on moving to Florida, the best shot is in South Florida. The law firms are bigger down, there are more of them, and they tend to hire more summer associates. Also, I noticed that some firms with offices in both South Florida and Tampa hired SAs only for South Florida. South Florida also seems a little less biased against outsiders. Jacksonville and Orlando are both pretty similar to Tampa, from my interviewing experience and my experience with talking with other people.

As far as the US Attorney's Office in Tampa, whoever said the Tampa office has a heavy workload is right. I know from personal experience having interned there. Also,one of my parents worked there in the 80's and 90's and was involved in hiring. Like others have alluded to, they get a mix of former state attorneys and biglaw refugees. They also get a good amount of former JAGs, interestingly enough. Who gets hired depends a lot on who the current US Attorney is and what their hiring preferences are. Career prosecutor US Attorneys are more likely to hire former state attorneys, and US Attorneys who are BigLaw guys are more likely to hire BigLaw refugees.

Just to follow up on how god awful Tampa is. I'm middle of the road HYS and URM, but not connected but struck out on a high number of callbacks in the area. I can say relatively definitively that one of the H&K spots went to a guy who went to High School with a hiring partner.

[Anonymous User]

I'm going to re-iterate what everyone else has said:

Getting hired as a SA in Tampa is almost impossible. I'm a 3L who did "everything right" (top 5% at UF, Law Review, from Tampa, went to the right school, both parents well connected in Tampa) and finding a SA position in Tampa was extremely difficult last year. I think there were about 10-15 at most high paying summer associate positions last year(Bush Ross-2, Hill Ward Henderson-4, H&K-2?,DLA Piper 1, Fowler White-3-4?,Phelps Dunbar-2?, Shook-1 Carlton Fields-4ish) and and a few others. And there's a lot of competition for these position between all the local schools and T-14 students with local ties. Bush Ross interviewed 60 people(20 each at UF, Stetson, and FSU) for their 2 spots. And of course, Carlton Fields no-offered their whole 20111 Tampa class, including some people with impressive schools(e.g. Yale). I think a lot of the bigger firms were real estate heavy which explains why they aren't doing too well.

As far as Florida goes, if you insist on moving to Florida, the best shot is in South Florida. The law firms are bigger down, there are more of them, and they tend to hire more summer associates. Also, I noticed that some firms with offices in both South Florida and Tampa hired SAs only for South Florida. South Florida also seems a little less biased against outsiders. Jacksonville and Orlando are both pretty similar to Tampa, from my interviewing experience and my experience with talking with other people.

As far as the US Attorney's Office in Tampa, whoever said the Tampa office has a heavy workload is right. I know from personal experience having interned there. Also,one of my parents worked there in the 80's and 90's and was involved in hiring. Like others have alluded to, they get a mix of former state attorneys and biglaw refugees. They also get a good amount of former JAGs, interestingly enough. Who gets hired depends a lot on who the current US Attorney is and what their hiring preferences are. Career prosecutor US Attorneys are more likely to hire former state attorneys, and US Attorneys who are BigLaw guys are more likely to hire BigLaw refugees.

--------My drunkeness almost made me out myself.
Basically I'm middle of the pack at top3 to top6 school, w/ significant ties to Tampa and struck out last year.