Would you choose a federal or state job? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Some anecdata for State sometimes being better: Miami County Attorney’s office seems to be more desirable than S.D.Fla. AUSA civil (the comp is WAY more)

I used to be a state prosecutor in Miami before I went federal. I think it’s important to note that the county attorney’s office there is an anomaly throughout the state of Florida. They have a relatively small office and pay similar to something like the SEC. The rest of the state mostly pays garbage. There were 20 year veterans at the state attorney’s office that weren’t even making 100k.

Hi there. I am a 2L at a law school in Miami, FL. I am almost certain I want to be a state prosecutor here for a few years when I graduate, especially since the pay has been increased from $41,500 to $50k. Currently I am interning at an appellate court. I know common exit options after being a prosecutor are crim and insurance defense. But are there opps to move laterally within the public sector (city work, etc.)? What about probate/property litigation, would it make sense for a former prosecutor to move there?

Thanks.

I’m the quoted anon. Short answer: yes. Here’s my rationale based on my experience and observations of my former SAO crew:

A few of my former coworkers now work at other Florida agencies (transportation, corrections, attorney general, city/county governments, etc) and some are even judges. It seems pretty easy to land another Florida state job, especially attorney general work, as long as you’ve spent less than say 6ish years at the SAO. The exception to that rule is the judges. Career prosecutors or public defenders are much more likely to be judges than the ones that go to other state agencies. If you wait too long you can get pigeon-holed into criminal law.

That being said, the other Florida agencies still pay awfully low. It’s not unusual for an attorney with 15+ years experience still to be making less than 100k at another Florida public sector job. A very, very small minatory of my colleagues managed to get into a biglaw firms through crazy local connections or midlaw firms (slightly easier - though these are usually insurance defense firms disguised as general practice firms) the same way. Others end up at big insurance defense firms (Wicker Smith, CSK, etc) and are happy to make what I understand is very low six figures, or just shy of that, with no real significant raises and billing over 2100 hours a month. Over all, the vast majority either work for insurance companies, insurance defense firms, or small law firms doing things like you mentioned: probate, property litigation, construction law (construction is pretty much insurance work). Only a very few end up landing fed jobs, which may also be a selection bias seeing as you pretty much need to leave Florida to get anything other than an a AUSA gig (and those are very hard to get coming from the Miami SAO despite what they SAO would have you believe... just look at how many former prosecutors are there from Miami).

I will say that being a prosecutor in Miami was a lot of fun. I made lifelong friends and really enjoyed most of the work. Trying cases was a blast. If the job paid me what the feds pay me, I never would have left.