Road to the DOJ Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi TLS,

Career goals:

-clerk
-work for the U.S. Attorney's office

My GPA isn't stellar, but I'm on LR (at a T30).

I've applied to SLIP and have a BigLaw offer in hand. I have applications ready to go out to DA offices up and down the east coast.

What, in your infinite wisdom, should I do?

[Anonymous User]

My plan is to ask one firm to hold my offer until April 1 under the NALP guidelines while I wait to hear about DOJ slip. I'm still trying to decide which firm to choose, but my plan is to call and say "Hi Firm X. You are my number one private sector choice, but I am really interested in exploring a career with the DOJ. Would you please hold my offer until April 1st, because making the private/government decision is a really difficult one for me, and the government timeline is so drastically different from the private sector. Thanks, xoxo"

[JusticeHarlan]

Take the biglaw firm for the summer, clerk, do litigation at the firm for some years, then DoJ. As far as I can tell, that's the credited way to do it these days (not that there's an easy way).

[Anonymous User]

My plan is to ask one firm to hold my offer until April 1 under the NALP guidelines while I wait to hear about DOJ slip. I'm still trying to decide which firm to choose, but my plan is to call and say "Hi Firm X. You are my number one private sector choice, but I am really interested in exploring a career with the DOJ. Would you please hold my offer until April 1st, because making the private/government decision is a really difficult one for me, and the government timeline is so drastically different from the private sector. Thanks, xoxo"

IMHO this sounds like a bad idea.

[blazes]

My plan is to ask one firm to hold my offer until April 1 under the NALP guidelines while I wait to hear about DOJ slip. I'm still trying to decide which firm to choose, but my plan is to call and say "Hi Firm X. You are my number one private sector choice, but I am really interested in exploring a career with the DOJ. Would you please hold my offer until April 1st, because making the private/government decision is a really difficult one for me, and the government timeline is so drastically different from the private sector. Thanks, xoxo"

IMHO this sounds like a bad idea.

If I was the firm, I'd not be too thrilled about that. And if it is a small office, I can bet they'll be really steamed. If I was in their position, I'd just hire another summer, and no offer you if you came.

[Anonymous User]

My plan is to ask one firm to hold my offer until April 1 under the NALP guidelines while I wait to hear about DOJ slip. I'm still trying to decide which firm to choose, but my plan is to call and say "Hi Firm X. You are my number one private sector choice, but I am really interested in exploring a career with the DOJ. Would you please hold my offer until April 1st, because making the private/government decision is a really difficult one for me, and the government timeline is so drastically different from the private sector. Thanks, xoxo"

IMHO this sounds like a bad idea.

If I was the firm, I'd not be too thrilled about that. And if it is a small office, I can bet they'll be really steamed. If I was in their position, I'd just hire another summer, and no offer you if you came.

Well...this just goes to show that reasonable minds can differ. I've spoken to a number of attorneys (both firm and government) who said this is basically the exact way to proceed. A firm doesn't want you if you're not going to want to work there, and they want to leave the door open to you if you want to come back after government work. New associates straight out of law school are relatively fungible; associates who want to lateral with good government experience are not.

With that said, firm size is a significant consideration, and it does make more sense to ask this of a larger firm in NY than a smaller firm in a smaller market.

[johndhi]

could you tell them you're interested in splitting with SLIP and intend to if you get it?