DOJ-SLIP EOIR Forum

[Lord_of_Flies]

I have an offer for DOJ SLIP. It's EOIR (haven't heard from DOJ antitrust or civil, which were my top 2). I have taken an immigration class and am doing an immigration clinic, but I do not want to practice in immigration for a career. I am interested in DOJ (main DOJ or USAO). I have worked as an intern for the USAO (1L summer). I absolutely loved the USAO and want to end up there longterm.

At the moment, I don't have any offers. There are still some midlaw firms I have screeners and callbacks with, but nothing solid. All my BigLaw CBs were strikeouts. I am very hesitant to commit to EOIR. I am afraid that another immigration thing on my resume will "type-cast" or pigeonhole me. However, if taking this job will help me get the EOIR clerk position and that could help with getting into DOJ or maybe a state clerkship, it could be worth it?

How is an EOIR clerkship viewed? I know it is nowhere close to an Article III clerkship, but does it have any transferability? Should I just stay away if I don't want to be stuck in immigration?

[Anonymous User]

I am not in EOIR, so keeping that in mind: in my opinion the EOIR clerkship doesn't transfer easily to the non-immigration context, because the rules of immigration court are so different from other litigation (the biggest thing is that the rules of evidence don't apply, so you won't really learn them). And immigration law is really specialized and very different from other areas. Also, I interviewed for one of the immigration clerkships with EOIR, and my understanding is that the huge majority of people who do those clerkships go on to other immigration jobs with the federal government, or into private immigration work. That's not to say that it's impossible to go on and do something else (people certainly change their minds), but I think if you already know that you don't want to do immigration, going the EOIR path is going to complicate things for you.

(I don't think EOIR would help you get a state clerkship because immigration is purely federal - it won't hurt you/keep you from getting one, but it's no more a plus than any other kind of legal employment.)

The other thing, though, is that EOIR hires people to work for general counsel, which is much more like being in-house for an agency, and would be more transferable to other contexts (labor/employment, contracts, policy work). If the SLIP position is to work in immigration court, then never mind, but if it's in OGC then it might be different.

[Lord_of_Flies]

Thank you. I appreciate your insight.