Would you take a job as solicitor general of fly-over state? Forum

[JusticeJackson]

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[Tanicius]

This whole thread reminds me of this woman's short-lived stint as youngest chief federal prosecutor in American history: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01582.html.

I think solicitor for some fly-over state is a far cry from being the U.S. Attorney for another (?) fly-over state, but maybe I give the federal government appointees too much credit.

I mean he's gonna be handling the office policies and political decisions for a sub-branch of government that oversees thousands of cases a year. There are a lot of people that will be legit screwed over, not to mention the deputy solicitor generals that work in the office already and know how to do their jobs.

[UnicornHunter]

lol at asking TLS about this. TLS is full of retards wondering if you could "go back to being an associate." Just fucking lol.

Obviously take the job, but this is a flame.

This

[TheSpanishMain]

Pay is like 100k, which obviously fucking sucks

Would it really even be a pay cut after you adjust for the massive difference in COL?

[Avian]

I would probably take it. My understanding is that solictors general are usually quite young, but I would still ask yourself if you feel like you could handle it. It's obviously a lot more responsibility than I imagine you're getting as a junior associate. I wouldn't worry too much about options afterwards since you should have some pretty serious high profile appellate work under your belt by the end of it.

[Anonymous User]

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[Tanicius]

OP here. I’m not going to take the job. After doing some research, I get the sense that these jobs often go to young lawyers that that boss knows will work long hours and will be 100% loyal, despite the shit pay and uncertain career trajectory. Also, it’s a gamble. State politics—at least in my state—can be fickle, and I found the linkedin profiles for guys that took high posts in my state’s government, only to see the politician they went to work for ultimately fall on disfavor. Without giving too much away, their career trajectory was seriously harmed. That was especially true for the ones that had their bosses voted out of office while they were still serving. It’s not worth the risk to me. I’d rather make 210k+bonus in NYC than 100k in a term job in a somewhat cheaper city that I’ll probably want to leave.

Hey man, if this is all real, then props for making a level-headed decision. If you're unhappy where you currently are, well, you've made it this far and can make it a little while longer, and then something you can more easily stomach will come along.

[Anonymous User]

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[haus]

OP here. I’m not going to take the job. After doing some research, I get the sense that these jobs often go to young lawyers that that boss knows will work long hours and will be 100% loyal, despite the shit pay and uncertain career trajectory. Also, it’s a gamble. State politics—at least in my state—can be fickle, and I found the linkedin profiles for guys that took high posts in my state’s government, only to see the politician they went to work for ultimately fall on disfavor. Without giving too much away, their career trajectory was seriously harmed. That was especially true for the ones that had their bosses voted out of office while they were still serving. It’s not worth the risk to me. I’d rather make 210k+bonus in NYC than 100k in a term job in a somewhat cheaper city that I’ll probably want to leave.

Hey man, if this is all real, then props for making a level-headed decision. If you're unhappy where you currently are, well, you've made it this far and can make it a little while longer, and then something you can more easily stomach will come along.

It's real. I'm blown away that TLS doesn't think that state posts go to people with connections to the elected official. I've seen a lot of careers take off where the young lawyer picks the right dark horse candidate in a political race. Are there people with better credentials than me that would take the job? Probably. Like a lot of the red wave, this guy faced long odds, and now he's going to trust the judgment of the team that was with him from the beginning, including the decision regarding who to hire for certain unfilled positions.

Considering the high level of historical victories for incumbent candidates in this country, it would seem to be a significant overstatement to say that you or anyone else has seen "a lot of careers take off where the young lawyer picks the right dark horse candidate in a political race".

[dixiecupdrinking]

I would be interested to see any example of a junior associate being appointed the top appellate lawyer in any state as a political favor. Not saying it hasn't happened and not saying this is flame but the situation strikes me as sui generis to say the least.

[Anonymous User]

I would be interested to see any example of a junior associate being appointed the top appellate lawyer in any state as a political favor. Not saying it hasn't happened and not saying this is flame but the situation strikes me as sui generis to say the least.

I can't say for certain this was a political favor, but this guy certainly was a junior associate and is politically connected.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickwyrick

[Anonymous User]

I interviewed to be a professor at U. of Montana a few years back. This guy seemed very young, and said he spent time as solicitor general of Montana after doing a clerkship and a stint at Cravath:

http://www.umt.edu/law/faculty/people/johnstone.php

I didn't check his bio to see the number of years he spent at each, but I remember thinking "man, this guy seems way too young to have been solicitor." After seeing the Oklahoma linkedin profile, maybe I was just dead wrong about how that works.

[JusticeJackson]

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[Anonymous User]

Possibly stupid question, what's the diff between working for the Solicitor General of a state and the Attorney General?

[BVest]

Possibly stupid question, what's the diff between working for the Solicitor General of a state and the Attorney General?

Usually the Solicitor General also works for the AG. The Solicitor General is like the Deputy AG for Appellate Litigation or the Division Chief for the AG's Appellate Litigation Division.

[SemperLegal]

Possibly stupid question, what's the diff between working for the Solicitor General of a state and the Attorney General?

Usually the Solicitor General also works for the AG. The Solicitor General is like the Deputy AG for Appellate Litigation or the Division Chief for the AG's Appellate Litigation Division.

Might seem obvious, but the SG is also solely devoted to litigation and legal work. AGs, and their assistants, also do policy work, as well as agency consultation, oversee the state police, fulfill constitutional functions (including, sometimes, executive functions normally done by lt governors), and are ex officio members of various state boards (I.e. pension related, emergency preparedness, election boards, education panels, bar/judicial oversight). A DAG or AAG might be exclusive to one of those roles and actually not to traditional legal work.

[wwwcol]

Possibly stupid question, what's the diff between working for the Solicitor General of a state and the Attorney General?

Usually the Solicitor General also works for the AG. The Solicitor General is like the Deputy AG for Appellate Litigation or the Division Chief for the AG's Appellate Litigation Division.

Might seem obvious, but the SG is also solely devoted to litigation and legal work. AGs, and their assistants, also do policy work, as well as agency consultation, oversee the state police, fulfill constitutional functions (including, sometimes, executive functions normally done by lt governors), and are ex officio members of various state boards (I.e. pension related, emergency preparedness, election boards, education panels, bar/judicial oversight). A DAG or AAG might be exclusive to one of those roles and actually not to traditional legal work.

All of this varies by state. Some SGs are purely traditional litigation but others do lots of policy/admin/misc work. In some states the SGs role is largely a function of what the AG delegates to him, and so responsibilities will vary depending on who the AG is.

[iplulzer]

lol at asking TLS about this. TLS is full of retards wondering if you could "go back to being an associate." Just fucking lol.

Obviously take the job, but this is a flame.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Considering the high level of historical victories for incumbent candidates in this country, it would seem to be a significant overstatement to say that you or anyone else has seen "a lot of careers take off where the young lawyer picks the right dark horse candidate in a political race".

This is pretty bad reasoning. Even if 90% of incumbents win (which I'm told is a high guess historically), that still leaves (1) the 10% of newbies that beat incumbents; (2) the newly elected folks that run for spots left open due to term-limits; (3) the newly elected folks that run for spots left open because the incumbent sought higher office; (4) all kinds of other random shit that causes incumbents to not run again, like getting caught having an affair, or having such bad approval rating that the incumbent realizes he won't win (both of these things have happened in states I have lived in during the last few terms).

I just scanned the last election for 3 states I'm familiar with, and my rough guess is that 30-40% of the positions were filled by non-incumbents (I'm not going to sit here and do a full tally for some rando internet guy). Some positions (e.g., state legislature) probably can only hire 1 new staff person, and that position isn't that high-level. Others (governors, U.S. legislature, AGs) can hire way more staff, including 5-10 high-level staff members with prestigious titles. Looking back, I have had at least 2 personal friends during each of the last 3 elections that have had their star rise significantly because they jumped on the correct band-wagon early. I have heard of many others that I don't know personally.

[fats provolone]

If you are asking TLS about this, you are massively underqualified for the position

I mean, maybe OP is underqualified, but where would you go to ask about what legal employment looks like after 4 years of public service in some random fly-over state? I doubt there's much precedent on that type of move.

Not TLS because TLS apparently can't even comprehend that the Solicitor General of any state is a really fucking good job.

does vault rank states?

[5ky]

Also not as stark as the Oklahoma guy, but I know I read that Ted Cruz was Solicitor of Texas at 33 years old. Also, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-haged ... =pub-pbmap

Ted Cruz: Princeton, HLS, clerk @ 4th cir, clerk for Chief Justice of SCOTUS, director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, Associate Deputy Attorney General at DOJ, Domestic Policy Advisor to 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign, then TX solicitor gen.

OP: second year doc review monkey at Paul Weiss.

def not flame