How to be a Prosecution/PD Gunner? Forum

[leobowski]

JAG -> PD is not unheard of. But it's not as common as JAG -> DA/AUSA. That kind of experience certainly wouldn't hurt you.

[Anonymous User]

Finally heard back from Miami SAO about my interview I was offered end of October. I emailed the recruiter the very day I was offered an interview, never heard back. Left a voicemail never called back. emailed him twice again, never heard back. Just now he emails me saying he won't give me an interview because they are wrapping up recruitment. I can't tell you how unorganized and unprofessional this is to me. Pissed beyond belief.

[Anonymous User]

Finally heard back from Miami SAO about my interview I was offered end of October. I emailed the recruiter the very day I was offered an interview, never heard back. Left a voicemail never called back. emailed him twice again, never heard back. Just now he emails me saying he won't give me an interview because they are wrapping up recruitment. I can't tell you how unorganized and unprofessional this is to me. Pissed beyond belief.

That sucks so hard man. I'm sorry. I bugged the hell out of their recruitment office out of fear for this very reason.

[Anonymous User]

Finally heard back from Miami SAO about my interview I was offered end of October. I emailed the recruiter the very day I was offered an interview, never heard back. Left a voicemail never called back. emailed him twice again, never heard back. Just now he emails me saying he won't give me an interview because they are wrapping up recruitment. I can't tell you how unorganized and unprofessional this is to me. Pissed beyond belief.

I haven't received this email but I've had the same experience. I've emailed and left voicemails several times and have received no contact. I started emailing and calling immediately after receiving the letter offering an interview. I'm in the middle of interviewing at other offices and have had none of these problems with any of them. I agree that it is very unprofessional and rude. I expect to get a similar email in the future.

*Got the email. I had first contacted the office over 2 months ago.

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with an adjacent DA office (not-LA county), and have upcoming interviews with City Attorney and USAO Riverside. 2L. Thoughts on which I should pursue harder?

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with an adjacent DA office (not-LA county), and have upcoming interviews with City Attorney and USAO Riverside. 2L. Thoughts on which I should pursue harder?

What did you do 1L summer?

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with an adjacent DA office (not-LA county), and have upcoming interviews with City Attorney and USAO Riverside. 2L. Thoughts on which I should pursue harder?

What did you do 1L summer?

Private practice civil firm.

[dreakol]

first interview lined up in early January for summer work. pretty stoked.

phone interview was pretty short and casual. would i be wrong in expecting the in person interview to be about the same, maybe just longer for a 1L?

[Anonymous User]

first interview lined up in early January for summer work. pretty stoked.

phone interview was pretty short and casual. would i be wrong in expecting the in person interview to be about the same, maybe just longer for a 1L?

First off, congrats. I'm a 2L (same as above), and my interview was about 20-30 minutes. Fairly casual, and no hypotheticals. Who is your interview with?

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with an adjacent DA office (not-LA county), and have upcoming interviews with City Attorney and USAO Riverside. 2L. Thoughts on which I should pursue harder?

What did you do 1L summer?

Private practice civil firm.

I think if you're certain you want to do criminal prosecution work after graduation, you should pursue both equally hard. I don't see why it has to be either-or at this stage in the game. But if it comes down to a choice between the two offices, I think that I would probably lean toward the USAO unless the DA's office you're thinking about is particularly busy or one you want to work in someday. I think that either way, if you devote your second summer to prosecution work, it will show your commitment, especially since you already did the firm thing. The only thing that might become harder down the road if you do go the USAO route is that you will have to be prepared to explain in DA interviews why you'd rather work at the local level. They don't want people who are just going to use them as a stepping stone to get to the Feds.

[Geist13]

Question: The DA's office I worked in last summer is in my favorite city. I WANT to work there after graduation. However they give their summer interns/clerks pretty shitty work. Lots of filling in names/addresses etc. on form motions. Some photocopying. Getting shit signed by judges. Research and writing every now and then, but not too much. I don't really want to have that type of experience again this summer. But I will be applying to work there next year. If I can't land a DA office with more substantive work should I just suck it up and go back, or should I try to work at a small firm other local gov. agency etc. this summer?

[Gettingstarted1928]

Question: The DA's office I worked in last summer is in my favorite city. I WANT to work there after graduation. However they give their summer interns/clerks pretty shitty work. Lots of filling in names/addresses etc. on form motions. Some photocopying. Getting shit signed by judges. Research and writing every now and then, but not too much. I don't really want to have that type of experience again this summer. But I will be applying to work there next year. If I can't land a DA office with more substantive work should I just suck it up and go back, or should I try to work at a small firm other local gov. agency etc. this summer?

That sucks. So basically they make you a file bitch? They owe it to unpaid interns to give them something substantive. It seems like they have a bunch of BS work they don't want to do so they figure they'll just have interns do it for free.

To answer your question, if you are positive that you want to work there and you think you'll have a good shot, just put up with those assholes. Forgive the tone - I've had shitty internships like that and it pisses me off.

[Geist13]

Question: The DA's office I worked in last summer is in my favorite city. I WANT to work there after graduation. However they give their summer interns/clerks pretty shitty work. Lots of filling in names/addresses etc. on form motions. Some photocopying. Getting shit signed by judges. Research and writing every now and then, but not too much. I don't really want to have that type of experience again this summer. But I will be applying to work there next year. If I can't land a DA office with more substantive work should I just suck it up and go back, or should I try to work at a small firm other local gov. agency etc. this summer?

That sucks. So basically they make you a file bitch? They owe it to unpaid interns to give them something substantive. It seems like they have a bunch of BS work they don't want to do so they figure they'll just have interns do it for free.

To answer your question, if you are positive that you want to work there and you think you'll have a good shot, just put up with those assholes. Forgive the tone - I've had shitty internships like that and it pisses me off.

Problem is: we're talking about a DAs office. There is no such thing as a "good shot." Best you're going to get in any office is "slightly better than astronomically low shot."

Re: substantive work. The impression I got was that unless your office is assigning you to specific cases either in the form of trying your own cases or being second chair on some major case which requires a lot of preparation, there's really not much to do in a DA's office that isn't menial work.

By the way, any 2Ls heard from Suffolk County DA?

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with an adjacent DA office (not-LA county), and have upcoming interviews with City Attorney and USAO Riverside. 2L. Thoughts on which I should pursue harder?

What did you do 1L summer?

Private practice civil firm.

I think if you're certain you want to do criminal prosecution work after graduation, you should pursue both equally hard. I don't see why it has to be either-or at this stage in the game. But if it comes down to a choice between the two offices, I think that I would probably lean toward the USAO unless the DA's office you're thinking about is particularly busy or one you want to work in someday. I think that either way, if you devote your second summer to prosecution work, it will show your commitment, especially since you already did the firm thing. The only thing that might become harder down the road if you do go the USAO route is that you will have to be prepared to explain in DA interviews why you'd rather work at the local level. They don't want people who are just going to use them as a stepping stone to get to the Feds.

I forgot to mention, the City work is actually civil stuff and in the same practice area as my 1L private work.

EDIT: Also, I don't think the office I'm going to is as busy as some other counties in the surrounding area, although I expressed an interest in working in one of their subdivisions that they claimed not a whole lot of people actively pursue (which might help me). I would certainly prefer to live there over the IE.

Just curious, could you elaborate on why you would lean toward the USAO in my situation?

[Geist13]

Just curious, could you elaborate on why you would lean toward the USAO in my situation?

Because it's more shiny on your resume.

[Anonymous User]

Just curious, could you elaborate on why you would lean toward the USAO in my situation?

Because it's more shiny on your resume.

Yes, that. And also, in my experience, they give you more challenging/substantive work. (I did 1L at a DA's office and 2L at a USAO.)

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know what the chances would be of getting a post grad offer out of a 2L summer clerkship with the LA PDs? I am guess it's very slim.

[kalvano]

Anyone know what the chances would be of getting a post grad offer out of a 2L summer clerkship with the LA PDs? I am guess it's very slim.

I know here in Dallas that that is actually the best way to get an offer. They want people who have demonstrated an interest in their office all the way through school, and you are far more likely to get an offer if you worked for them 2L summer.

[seatown12]

Anyone know what the chances would be of getting a post grad offer out of a 2L summer clerkship with the LA PDs? I am guess it's very slim.

PDs don't offer people at the end of the summer like firms. LA usually has post-grad clerks and they don't even always get permanent offers. Doing the 2L clerkship will be a boost later though for the reason mentioned above.

[msuz]

Question: How many summer interns do medium to largely populated city/county prosecutor's offices usually hire per summer? If at all possible, can anyone give a rough estimate of the number of students that apply to 1L/2L summer internships at local level prosecutors compared to the % that actually get an offer?

Also, if a law school is in the county that you want to work, can you reasonably expect that you will be able to secure a 1L internship there (assuming you have decent grades, are a good interviewer, etc)? Or did most of you interested in prosecution have to scrap to apply to every county in the middle of no where?

[Gettingstarted1928]

How many offices are all of you applying to?

[nol607]

Any 2Ls heard anything from NYC area offices? I applied to Bronx in late Oct and have heard nothing, and the others in mid-Nov...have heard nothing. I thought I had a strong resume but the lack of any response is disconcerting. Is this common in light of all the apps they've been receiving? Worth contacting them, or would you all just ride it out?

Gettingstarted: its a weird issue I've been struggling with. Applied to all school-area offices and those by my home (so ~6 total) but it seems like its definitely not enough. The problem is figuring out what else to apply to. USAOs are even more selective and I've been struggling to write cover letters to PDs.

[Gettingstarted1928]

Any 2Ls heard anything from NYC area offices? I applied to Bronx in late Oct and have heard nothing, and the others in mid-Nov...have heard nothing. I thought I had a strong resume but the lack of any response is disconcerting. Is this common in light of all the apps they've been receiving? Worth contacting them, or would you all just ride it out?

Gettingstarted: its a weird issue I've been struggling with. Applied to all school-area offices and those by my home (so ~6 total) but it seems like its definitely not enough. The problem is figuring out what else to apply to. USAOs are even more selective and I've been struggling to write cover letters to PDs.

Yeah, I'm applying to maybe 13 or 14. Those are basically all the offices within driving distance from my home and my apartment at school. I'm not about to get another another apartment, especially considering these internships are unpaid.

[Anonymous User]

I'm curious as to what I should do for my next summer. I know I can go back to the office that I worked for last summer, a small but prominent PDs office, and I will be able to student practice there and get real court experience. I know if I went back I'd get the opportunity to have my own cases and if available argue during a jury trial. I also have the opportunity to work in a Fed PD's office where I probably won't have the opportunity to do that as much but it's in a much bigger city. Advice for which job to take and what would look better on a resume during the 3L PD job hunt?

[Tanicius]

I'm curious as to what I should do for my next summer. I know I can go back to the office that I worked for last summer, a small but prominent PDs office, and I will be able to student practice there and get real court experience. I know if I went back I'd get the opportunity to have my own cases and if available argue during a jury trial. I also have the opportunity to work in a Fed PD's office where I probably won't have the opportunity to do that as much but it's in a much bigger city. Advice for which job to take and what would look better on a resume during the 3L PD job hunt?

Uh, if you have the opportunity to do actual substantive work (read: jury trials!) yourself, take it and run with it. Nothing on a resume tops that when you are applying to PD jobs.