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Currently a Jr. Associate at a regional medium law firm. Looking at my options jumping to the federal government (EPA Specifically). I'm confused on the trajectory on the position. From what I can see, there are people who remain at "Attorney Advisor" for years and never get to a higher role.

Will it always be a fight to get to the next rung versus natural promotion and progression?

And why am I seeing EPA supervisory attorney positions listed at GS15 but have a salary range to 160k (way above the schedule online).

Any help at all would be awesome.

My understanding is Attorney Advisor and General Attorney are simply two huge categories for federal attorney positions, and jobs are placed in those categories according to their duties. While the job may officially fall into one of those categories, the agencies themselves may have different names for the specific job you are hired into, i.e. Associate Counsel, Assistant General Counsel, etc. In my agency, you are hired at GS-11 and go up to GS-14 in 3-4 years, all the while remaining an "Attorney Advisor."

To your second question, I'm not sure what you're looking at but in DC at least, GS-15 step 1 is about 134k, rising past 160k at GS-15 step 7.

Currently with EPA. You (basically) automatically ladder to a GS-14 as a staff attorney. Your title doesn't change. GS-15 is (very) competitive for staff but automatic for supervisors. In theory, GS-15 caps out around $160k. In practice, there are salary caps that usually keep you at step 7. It's different if you're SES (i.e., senior management).

Salary aside, my impression is that career trajectories can be pretty static. Not that the work isn't interesting and varied, but there just aren't a lot of opportunities to move up. So don't count on getting that GS-15.

Anonymous User wrote:Currently a Jr. Associate at a regional medium law firm. Looking at my options jumping to the federal government (EPA Specifically). I'm confused on the trajectory on the position. From what I can see, there are people who remain at "Attorney Advisor" for years and never get to a higher role.

Will it always be a fight to get to the next rung versus natural promotion and progression?

And why am I seeing EPA supervisory attorney positions listed at GS15 but have a salary range to 160k (way above the schedule online).

Any help at all would be awesome.

As others have pointed out, you will stay at in a position technically called "Attorney-Adviser" for until you are a GS-14 at most agencies, and then at GS-15 you will have a "Supervisory Attorney-Advisor" official position title. However, your real job title will rise from "Attorney" to "Senior Attorney" to "Assistant General Counsel" and the like as you move up the grades and the only place where your Attorney-Adviser title is used is in you personnel file. For salaries, you are probably not looking at the salary table that includes locality pay. Federal pay is a combination of base pay, which is the same throughout the country, and locality pay, which varies by region. Locality pay is a huge portion of the salary, and GS-15 currently tops out at around 165,000.