FPD Career Trajectory Forum

[SCOTUSorBust]

What are the most typical career paths for becoming a federal public defender? Is it similar to becoming an AUSA? Or is it basically required to be a pd on the state level beforehand?

[Anonymous User]

What are the most typical career paths for becoming a federal public defender? Is it similar to becoming an AUSA? Or is it basically required to be a pd on the state level beforehand?

I'm going to assume you're asking what the path is to become an assistant federal public defender (the FPD is appointed by the circuit court). To answer that question: it all really depends on the office, and most specifically, what the federal public defender/executive director wants. Some office will hire people straight out of law school, but that's rare for the AFPD positions. I think generally, though, offices are looking for people with relevant federal criminal defense experience, where they'll be able to take on a full caseload quickly and won't require too much training; commitment to the indigent defense; excellent research and writing skills, and Spanish language proficiency (most offices handle a significant number of illegal reentry cases). Being a Spanish-speaking Criminal Justice Act attorney (i.e. appointed) puts you in the best position possible with respect to meeting the job requirements. BUT that doesn't mean that you won't get beat out by someone who worked in biglaw and has really good academic credentials, someone who's local, or a diversity hire (even where that person doesn't have any relevant experience, if the FPD wants more diversity, someone local, etc.). So, as you can tell, it's really largely a matter of meeting whatever the federal public defender/executive director wants, which can really be quite idiosyncratic. For example, if you really want SDNY, being a SCOTUS clerk will probably be the best way to sell yourself to that office. Whereas, if you're interested in the District of Utah, working as an AUSA might be the best way to get in. Also, recognize the caseload you'll have vastly varies based on office. (For example, SD/ED of NY handles a lot of fraud cases, Utah handles a ton of child porn, and San Diego handles a ton of immigration offenses. So being a hot-shot immigration attorney in San Diego might do a lot more for you than in NY.)

[SCOTUSorBust]

What are the most typical career paths for becoming a federal public defender? Is it similar to becoming an AUSA? Or is it basically required to be a pd on the state level beforehand?

I'm going to assume you're asking what the path is to become an assistant federal public defender (the FPD is appointed by the circuit court). To answer that question: it all really depends on the office, and most specifically, what the federal public defender/executive director wants. Some office will hire people straight out of law school, but that's rare for the AFPD positions. I think generally, though, offices are looking for people with relevant federal criminal defense experience, where they'll be able to take on a full caseload quickly and won't require too much training; commitment to the indigent defense; excellent research and writing skills, and Spanish language proficiency (most offices handle a significant number of illegal reentry cases). Being a Spanish-speaking Criminal Justice Act attorney (i.e. appointed) puts you in the best position possible with respect to meeting the job requirements. BUT that doesn't mean that you won't get beat out by someone who worked in biglaw and has really good academic credentials, someone who's local, or a diversity hire (even where that person doesn't have any relevant experience, if the FPD wants more diversity, someone local, etc.). So, as you can tell, it's really largely a matter of meeting whatever the federal public defender/executive director wants, which can really be quite idiosyncratic. For example, if you really want SDNY, being a SCOTUS clerk will probably be the best way to sell yourself to that office. Whereas, if you're interested in the District of Utah, working as an AUSA might be the best way to get in. Also, recognize the caseload you'll have vastly varies based on office. (For example, SD/ED of NY handles a lot of fraud cases, Utah handles a ton of child porn, and San Diego handles a ton of immigration offenses. So being a hot-shot immigration attorney in San Diego might do a lot more for you than in NY.)

So basically, working as a PD in the state level isn't generally considered to be a prerequisite? For example, would a good idea be to hopefully clerk --> biglaw in general lit firm --> AFPD?

And how does one become appointed as a CJA panel attorney? Is that something you do concurrently with your firm job (if you take that route)?

[zot1]

I know at least a person who graduated, volunteered six months at the local county public defender's office (after interning with them during law school) and was hired by an FPD office in a different state. She wasn't BigLaw, didn't have a clerkship, didn't speak Spanish...

[Anonymous User]

To get appointed as a CJA panel attorney, at least for the felony panel, you will need a certain amount of experience first. (Not sure how much experience the misdemeanor panel would require.) It's not an entry-level route.

I think a PD position is going to be much better background than biglaw, in that you will get directly applicable experience, but it's true that it will depend on the office and what the particular FPD wants to emphasize. I don't think being an AUSA is especially good background, though (just that my experience with the FPD offices is that they tend to be more true-believer-y; in my district we have people who've gone to prosecution after doing defense work, but no one going from USAO to FPD).

Also, in my district you won't get hired without Spanish, period, but that's because of where we are. If you're in Iowa or something that's probably less pressing, though I think Spanish is frequently useful nonetheless.

[Anonymous User]

I know at least a person who graduated, volunteered six months at the local county public defender's office (after interning with them during law school) and was hired by an FPD office in a different state. She wasn't BigLaw, didn't have a clerkship, didn't speak Spanish...

Anon @ 10:48 pm here-- Right, this was kind of my point. Getting into a FPD is largely going to be a matter of meeting whatever it is that the federal public defender/executive director wants, which is hugely idiosyncratic. It's certainly far from unheard of for a FPD office to hire a TTT grad with no relevant experience whatsoever over a t14 grad who clerked for a federal judge. (There's a million and a half idiosyncratic reasons that the FPD would hire the TTT grad over the t14 grad.)

What are the most typical career paths for becoming a federal public defender? Is it similar to becoming an AUSA? Or is it basically required to be a pd on the state level beforehand?

I'm going to assume you're asking what the path is to become an assistant federal public defender (the FPD is appointed by the circuit court). To answer that question: it all really depends on the office, and most specifically, what the federal public defender/executive director wants. Some office will hire people straight out of law school, but that's rare for the AFPD positions. I think generally, though, offices are looking for people with relevant federal criminal defense experience, where they'll be able to take on a full caseload quickly and won't require too much training; commitment to the indigent defense; excellent research and writing skills, and Spanish language proficiency (most offices handle a significant number of illegal reentry cases). Being a Spanish-speaking Criminal Justice Act attorney (i.e. appointed) puts you in the best position possible with respect to meeting the job requirements. BUT that doesn't mean that you won't get beat out by someone who worked in biglaw and has really good academic credentials, someone who's local, or a diversity hire (even where that person doesn't have any relevant experience, if the FPD wants more diversity, someone local, etc.). So, as you can tell, it's really largely a matter of meeting whatever the federal public defender/executive director wants, which can really be quite idiosyncratic. For example, if you really want SDNY, being a SCOTUS clerk will probably be the best way to sell yourself to that office. Whereas, if you're interested in the District of Utah, working as an AUSA might be the best way to get in. Also, recognize the caseload you'll have vastly varies based on office. (For example, SD/ED of NY handles a lot of fraud cases, Utah handles a ton of child porn, and San Diego handles a ton of immigration offenses. So being a hot-shot immigration attorney in San Diego might do a lot more for you than in NY.)

So basically, working as a PD in the state level isn't generally considered to be a prerequisite? For example, would a good idea be to hopefully clerk --> biglaw in general lit firm --> AFPD?

And how does one become appointed as a CJA panel attorney? Is that something you do concurrently with your firm job (if you take that route)?

Working as a PD at the state level certainly doesn't hurt--you'll get trial experience, which offices tend to want. It also shows commitment to indigent defense work, which offices also want. The thing you won't get is federal criminal experience, which most offices want as well. You need experience to get appointed as a CJA panel attorney (it all depends on the district, some require having done X jury trials, etc.). One career path that I've seen is to work as a trial state PD for several years and then go into a private practice, where you handle federal criminal cases (ideally, including appointed cases). If you don't already speak Spanish, learn it. Honestly, that's a pretty big deal in most districts, including places you wouldn't even think it would be (e.g. Philly, Seattle, etc.). The reason is because most FPD offices handle a substantial number of illegal reentry cases, and those clients frequently don't speak English, don't speak English well, or prefer to speak to their attorney in Spanish (it's kind a trust thing, where some of those clients will just trust you more easily if you can speak to them in Spanish). Even if you're looking at going to a place like Mobile, AL, being fluent in Spanish will give you a huge edge over non-Spanish speaking candidates.

If wind up going the fed clerkship to biglaw route, do as much pro bono fed criminal stuff as you can. That will allow you to develop connections with people at the FPD office that you want to go to and will give you something to say when you're inevitably asked why you want to switch to public defender work during your interview.