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We hear a lot about law firm culture (and prestige) but I haven't seen many attempts to describe federal government offices in similar terms. Anyone able to chime in about the culture and reputation of any of the DOJ divisions or other regulatory or enforcement agencies like CFTC, FCC, FTC, SEC?

Clerked during law school at a regional office of the FDIC. From what I experienced and heard from other attorneys, most of the regional offices of the FDIC are much more relaxed and less cutthroat than headquarters in DC. All major decisions are run through DC and attorneys that want to advance and go into management tend to gravitate to DC because most of those opportunities are there.

In the regional office where I was, it was a pretty lax environment, with no real pressing deadlines and the regional general counsel and senior counsel attorneys were pretty helpful. If you had a busy time and had to work over 40 hours per week, you earn credit hours to apply to future weeks (in lieu of overtime).

Attorneys tend to develop a niche practice and are generally assigned the same types of issues, but sometimes it's varied. But even in my relatively short time ther (1.5 years), I got bored of doing the same mundane assignments, so while the hours are less, the drudgery can be quite high sometimes. The difference is that it's pretty easy to see what you're expected workflow is and how much you can manage, so it's much lower stress than BigLaw.

I summered in BigLaw and am going to a large firm, but because I'm still young and don't have a family, I value the extra pay and training and resources over the easier job I would have had at the FDIC. I really enjoyed it there but I wouldn't want to start my career in a regional office. There isn't any formal training to speak of, and the work isn't that complex and is fairly repetitive, so it would be necessary to go to DC to start to get a broader and in-depth exposure to different types of work.

To note, FDIC is the highest rated mid-size gov't agency for quality of life and employee satisfaction so once people start working there, they don't leave. Because of the pension, there are a lot of attorneys waiting out their 30 years. Not any entry-level hiring except for Honors program. Need to have a demonstrated interest or experience to be competitive for position. Will have bigger hiring need as Boomers die off/retire, but very office specific.

I'm in USACE in a non-major market. The office is very small (less than 10 attorneys). Environment is very laid back. As long as you do your job when you're supposed to, no one is bothering you about it. Hours are great--8 per day. If you work overtime, you can credit those hours for a later time (as previous poster mentioned).

The work is challenging and interesting. I find myself very busy through the day so hours go by quickly.

Because it is a small office, everyone is pretty close and gets along well. There are no yellers. We also wear business casual attire and casual on Fridays.

I will caution that I think the culture would be different if you were in DC or another major office like LA. Also, I think my boss is really awesome and that contributes to the culture as well.