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I saw a job posting recently for open positions at the CIA.

I assume most of the work for lawyers there involves employment litigation (e.g., ex-employees suing under Title VII, etc.) and FOIA requests, but it seems like there would also be an opportunity for very interesting national security and international work. Does anyone have any insight into what the workload is like and whether or how CIA attorneys tend to specialize in a given area?

Thanks.

Attorneys at the CIA will initially rotate through some of the less "sexy" areas within the Organization-Employment, Personnel/Security, Finance/Litigation Support for DOJ, etc.

After you put in some time you can move to the more desirable areas (Counter terrorism etc) where they do things they cannot speak about.

-DOJ Attorney.

Any idea how competitive these are? I’m a L&E Attorney with another Fed agency (non-DOJ) with about 4years exp, but would be interested in applying for a CIA spot.

Anonymous User wrote:Any idea how competitive these are? I’m a L&E Attorney with another Fed agency (non-DOJ) with about 4years exp, but would be interested in applying for a CIA spot.

Pretty competitive.
The attorneys I have dealt with have excellent pedigrees (Former biglaw/DOJ). Further, not only will your application be one of thousands, there is an intensive background check and CIA uses a poly even when hiring attorneys.
But Good Luck! It doesn't hurt to try.

-DOJ Attorney

Anonymous User wrote: Pretty competitive.
The attorneys I have dealt with have excellent pedigrees (Former biglaw/DOJ). Further, not only will your application be one of thousands, there is an intensive background check and CIA uses a poly even when hiring attorneys.
But Good Luck! It doesn't hurt to try.

-DOJ Attorney

OP here. Thanks for the replies so far. I saw the application process included a medical exam in addition to the polygraph, etc. Any idea what sort of medical issue would disqualify you?

Hi DoJ anon,

If you're still in this thread, do you have any idea what the chances are of going to DoJ from another fed agency after an honors program? I've been in legal strategy at an agency, which is a mix of higher level lit questions and legislative research, but I'm starting to regret not doing more traditional litigation. Would trying to clerk post-honors program help?

If it matters, I was in the grade/school range to be competitive for DoJ honors when I graduated.

Anonymous User wrote:Hi DoJ anon,

If you're still in this thread, do you have any idea what the chances are of going to DoJ from another fed agency after an honors program? I've been in legal strategy at an agency, which is a mix of higher level lit questions and legislative research, but I'm starting to regret not doing more traditional litigation. Would trying to clerk post-honors program help?

Answer is twofold :
1.Depends on what you were doing at this agency.
2. Depends on where in DOJ you want to go.
In Main justice, many of the components have a litigation section, but also have various policy sections that help shape they law they prosecute. If you can snag one of those roles you could probably transition to litigation after a little bit. However, if you strictly are set on litigation at Main or at the local USAOs, you are probably going to need some sort of litigation experience first.
Clerkships never hurt, but again it will depend on where you want to go within DOJ.

-DOJ Attorney