DC USAO or Capitol Hill? Forum

[hartfordhockaloogies]

Capitol hill vs. DC USAO - 3L year externship

I have received an offer to do an externship at the DC USAO, but is this going to be a good learning experience? My plan is to practice civil rights law in the South after graduation.

What about clerking on the hill with a subcommittee? Is this good experience at all?

[Anonymous User]

bump

[Anonymous User]

I externed at the DC USAO as a 2L, and it was a great experience. That said, how good your experience is depends, I think, on which section of the office you're in and which attorneys are there. I was in one of the superior court sections, which meant there was a lot of work to go around. They were understaffed, so interns did substantive things. I wrote motions that were submitted with no changes other than the addition of the attorney's signature. Which AUSAs are around is important, too: I was also lucky that there was one AUSA there who really took me under his wing, and brought me in to assist with trial, which was awesome. I think, if you want to do litigation, it's a great way to learn some of the nuts and bolts.

The only thing, at least when I was there, was that you had to be something of a self-starter. They had so much to do that they'd get wrapped up in things and not bring work, so you'd have to around and ask for work sometimes. Everyone was cool about it, and it resulted in my doing some cool projects.

[Anonymous User]

Any thoughts on externing on capitol hill?

[hartfordhockaloogies]

.

[A. Nony Mouse]

What legal work would the capitol hill externship entail?

[hartfordhockaloogies]

What legal work would the capitol hill externship entail?

I think researching legislative history of bills/floor debates, writing memos about said bills/debates, and briefing staff on the research - tbh, I'm not exactly sure. The experience sounds very interesting because I worked in a related field, published in this field, and I'd be working for a (recently announced) presidential candidate.

On the other hand, the DC USAO seems "preftige," but I have no real interest in criminal law work.

Any advice would be nice

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't know that the DC USAO is any more prestigious than interning on the Hill. It seems to me you're likely to be looking at doing criminal stuff, which you're not interested in, or legislative stuff, which is law-related but not really practice. Neither sounds especially directly related to doing civil rights work; the USAO may give you experience in federal court, which could be relevant for civil rights work, but since the DC USAO prosecutes the equivalent of state crime as well as federal stuff, if you're in superior court it's likely to be quite different. Is either closer geographically/connections-wise to where you'll be working/what you'll be doing after graduation?

Honestly, whichever one sounds more appealing to you is going to be fine.

[Anonymous User]

I'm the anon from earlier who interned with the USAO. Yeah, if you want civil rights stuff, unless you'd be in the civil side of the USAO, I'm not sure that either of these two internships would be all that helpful. I'd probably take USAO over the Hill, just because it will be full-on legal work, as opposed to being a mix including non-legal work semi-related to things like laws, but that's more personal preference than anything else. I don't think either is more prestigious than the other.

[hartfordhockaloogies]

Is everyone choosing USAO because its legal work and Capitol Hill is not?