federal defender v. ausa Forum

[Anonymous User]

why is ausa more prestigious than fed defender?

[romothesavior]

why is ausa more prestigious than fed defender?

Because they're the good guys.

[FlanAl]

my guess would be because federal defender lacks the kind of uniformity that the usao's have. from limited research it looks like a good number of districts just contract out the defense work even if they have a solid usao there. also there are weird fed defender private non-profits that make it confusing. kinda like how some people on here think PD's in general are like shit law because their district just contracts out the work where other people see these as super prestigious difficult jobs.

[quiver]

prosecutorial discretion is pretty badass

[Borhas]

why is ausa more prestigious than fed defender?

They win high profile cases, they also get to cherry pick so that they have even easier cases than their state counterparts. And they use the FBI works for/with them. Seem like your typical legal eagle dumbasses to me though.

[leobowski]

Federal defender gigs are insanely prestigious and difficult to get in the defense/ public interest sector. Especially those that hire out of law school, such as San Diego and DC PDS. A lot of new lawyers at those offices were either clerks or DOJ honors/SLIP. Really no different than the (rare) entry-level hires for USAOs.

I think AUSA gigs are viewed as more prestigious due to lay prestige, the politics and publicity of being a USA, and the fact that main justice has THE best/brightest legal minds in the country.

[Anonymous User]

prosecutorial discretion is pretty badass

but also a facade. the decision is not up to you. you will do what you boss tells you to do or you will find a new job.

[Anonymous User]

prosecutorial discretion is pretty badass

but also a facade. the decision is not up to you. you will do what you boss tells you to do or you will find a new job.

This is actually not true about how AUSAs work. I have spoken to AUSAs and they have described how they choose cases. They absolutely have huge discretion in what cases they pursue. They almost all uniformly say they individually run their cases from the initial decision to take the case. They do need to get Main Justice approval for certain things, but choosing a case is not one.

[Anonymous User]

USA's learn all sorts of investigative stuff and learn how the government handles things which is highly marketable once they decide to go to the other side and handle internal investigations, enforcement and white collar stuff. Fed Defenders dont quite have it the same way but they are plenty prestigious.

[84weeks]

I spent my 1L summer with the FPD in a secondary market. The attorneys all had backgrounds just as prestigious, if not more so, than their USA counterparts. You need a brilliant resume and, at *least*, five years of litigation/trial experience before they hire you for the bottom rung J.D. position. I'm at the top of my T2, with a journal, WE, and a passion for indigent defense and I don't know if I'll ever be viewed as "qualified" enough to work for that office.

I think the USAs have more lay prestige because the public is more knowledgeable about the work the DOJ does as opposed to the FPD. One, USAs win their cases a lot more often than FPDs. That's not a criticism of the lawyering skills, but just the hand you're dealt in most criminal defense work. Two, the public, for the most part, don't have much interaction with the office. Only the poorest defendants get representation by the office, and the subset of federal crimes is much smaller than state crimes.

OP, PM me if you want more details.