recent grad ADA taking questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anything on law school/hiring, etc.

[pjo]

Thanks for taking Q's. What school did you go to? Rank? What region is the position. Overall likes/dislikes about the job?

[A'nold]

You do exist!

Thanks for taking q's.

1. How on earth did you manage to find a post-grad position as an ADA with all the hiring freezes/general sucky gov. market?
2. What did you do in school to stand out?
3. Rank/School range?
4. What did you do 1L and 2L summers?

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for taking Q's. What school did you go to? Rank? What region is the position. Overall likes/dislikes about the job?

I went to a T14 and did fairly well. I work in a big city on the east coast.

It's an awesome job. You get a lot of responsibility early on and have a ton of discretion in your cases. That said, especially in the first few years, you have a high case load and a lot of silly minor misdemeanors. A big part of my job is balancing my time between the cases that really matter and those that don't as much.

In virtually every DA's office you get immediate hearing and trial experience right away, which is one of the major draws. It's not for everyone though. It's a loud, messy, and sometimes chaotic line of work, but there are days when it's just terrific.

[DorianGray89]

What's the salary like?

[towkthi]

Do you work in a large office and what schools did your coworkers attend? All T14 or a random assortment?

[Anonymous User]

You do exist!

Thanks for taking q's.

1. How on earth did you manage to find a post-grad position as an ADA with all the hiring freezes/general sucky gov. market?
2. What did you do in school to stand out?
3. Rank/School range?
4. What did you do 1L and 2L summers?

1. I was hired a few years ago, right before the market totally collapsed. Things are bad now, but we're still hiring full, or close to full classes.

2. Not much school wise. I took a bunch of crim law classes and did fairly well, which I think helped.

3. Posted above, but pretty good "school stats" not that they matter that much

4. Worked for a US Attorney's Office and then a stint at a firm 2L summer.

[towkthi]

Did you want to do ADA or did you just stumble into it?

[akili]

Do you feel like going to a T14 really helped your options?

Thanks for taking questions! This is exactly what I want to do so it helps to hear more about ADA positions!

[Anonymous User]

Do you work in a large office and what schools did your coworkers attend? All T14 or a random assortment?

Large office. Random assortment. We have people who went to Harvard and Yale and others who went to 4th tier schools here and elsewhere. Once you're hired no one cares where you went to school. The random assortment of law schools is true among bureau chiefs and executive staff the same way it is among first year line assistants.

[joemoviebuff]

Are you living comfortably (according you whatever definition you might have)? Taking advantage of LRAP and IBR? How is the work/life balance so far?

[Anonymous User]

Did you want to do ADA or did you just stumble into it?

I wanted to work in gov't or public interest. After interning for the USAO I knew that prosecution was what I wanted to do.

[Anonymous User]

Do you feel like going to a T14 really helped your options?

Thanks for taking questions! This is exactly what I want to do so it helps to hear more about ADA positions!

I think it helped, but I'm not sure how much.

[Anonymous User]

Are you living comfortably (according you whatever definition you might have)? Taking advantage of LRAP and IBR? How is the work/life balance so far?

Definitely. I'm on LRAP now, which is great. I really don't have any complaints. The work/life balance was tough at first, but it's getting better. 1st and 2nd year you do a decent amount of weekend intake, night court, etc. And when you're on trial it can be all consuming. But once you get adjusted and start moving to felonies it becomes a more stable 9:30-6 job when you're not on trial or dealing with an explosive situation.

[LLB2JD]

Do you owe a large amount of loans? If yes, how are you managing it? I'll assume ADA positions do not pay a lot. Am I right?

[Anonymous User]

Thanks so much for taking questions.

1. What do you think the biggest factors were in getting you the position?
2. How did your office look at your stint in a firm, as opposed to working in prosecution your 2L summer?
3. How does your office look at experience in criminal defense, particularly work in a 3L criminal defense clinic when the school doesn't offer a prosecution clinic?

[Anonymous User]

Do you owe a large amount of loans? If yes, how are you managing it? I'll assume ADA positions do not pay a lot. Am I right?

I have decent amount of law school loans, but not terrible. LRAP helps a lot. I also used my 2L summer at a firm to pay down some debt which was a good idea. Without LRAP it would be very tough, though, especially if I had $150k+ of loans.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks so much for taking questions.

1. What do you think the biggest factors were in getting you the position?
2. How did your office look at your stint in a firm, as opposed to working in prosecution your 2L summer?
3. How does your office look at experience in criminal defense, particularly work in a 3L criminal defense clinic when the school doesn't offer a prosecution clinic?

1. The basic factors I think they look for are: Dedication to public service. Courtroom presence/ability to handle hypotheticals. Experience in criminal law and clinical work. I think a big factor is references. Having a couple respected senior prosecutors at the USAO I interned at make calls for me was huge, or at least I think it was.

2. Skeptically. It came up. It wasn't a positive. But I was honest about it and told them I did it to help repay loans so that I could take a position that paid a lot less.

3. Defense work is generally positive. A lot of ADAs I work with interned for public defenders offices. They really look for people who are committed to doing justice and who are going to strive to get it right when no one's looking. So, experience on the defense side is definitely seen as a plus. But, you will need to explain why you want to be a prosecutor and not a defense attorney. As for a clinic where you're doing defense, that is almost certainly a big positive since you're getting great experience and training. Actually, I can't see how that would be held against you at any DA's office.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks again. Do you know if 2L summering at a federal regulatory agency would be viewed skeptically also, or would that fall into the positive "public service" box?

Would a person be crazy to take that over something like Manhattan DA?

[Anonymous User]

Thanks again. Do you know if 2L summering at a federal regulatory agency would be viewed skeptically also, or would that fall into the positive "public service" box?

Would a person be crazy to take that over something like Manhattan DA?

It seems like it would be a positive for the reasons you say. The big thing with DA's offices is they want to know why you want to be a prosecutor. If it's an angency that brings cases or regulatory actions against people who are violating the law, then that sounds like it would tie in well.

Whether you should take it over a DA's office you might want to work in is a differant question. I never interned for the office I work in now, so I don't think it's a big deal to do something like that. That said, interning at the DA's office probably helps, especially if the ADAs you work with think you did a good job.

[PriyaRai]

What was the panel interview like? Were you there for the end of Morgenthou's (sp) tenure? What division do you want to end up in in the coming years? Have you had the soup dumplings at that place across the street, maybe on Baxter?

[Anonymous User]

What was the panel interview like? Were you there for the end of Morgenthou's (sp) tenure? What division do you want to end up in in the coming years? Have you had the soup dumplings at that place across the street, maybe on Baxter?

Not going to say what office I'm at. We do have a panel interview though which is really tough. They just batter you with questions and hypotheticals, and change facts every time you finally get your head wrapped around it. It was unplesent, but I think it's supposed to be that way.

[A'nold]

What was the panel interview like? Were you there for the end of Morgenthou's (sp) tenure? What division do you want to end up in in the coming years? Have you had the soup dumplings at that place across the street, maybe on Baxter?

Not going to say what office I'm at. We do have a panel interview though which is really tough. They just batter you with questions and hypotheticals, and change facts every time you finally get your head wrapped around it. It was unplesent, but I think it's supposed to be that way.

Does your performance really dictate whether or not you get the job?

[Anonymous User]

Happy. Just got my second interview in 3 days for 2L Rule 9 prosecutor positions that I applied to like 2 months ago.

These are rural positions w/ the closest law schools being like 150 or so miles away. Less competition you think or will it be intense?

[Anonymous User]

What was the panel interview like? Were you there for the end of Morgenthou's (sp) tenure? What division do you want to end up in in the coming years? Have you had the soup dumplings at that place across the street, maybe on Baxter?

Not going to say what office I'm at. We do have a panel interview though which is really tough. They just batter you with questions and hypotheticals, and change facts every time you finally get your head wrapped around it. It was unplesent, but I think it's supposed to be that way.

Does your performance really dictate whether or not you get the job?

It's definitely a big hurdle. If you get over it you're in the running, but it's not guaranteed.