Top Law Schools

I know the AD pay scales per office are not publicly disclosed and job announcements list a huge pay range, but I was wondering if any current fed. clerk transitioning to a USAO was offered or was able to negotiate a salary within range of their JSP grade/step?

https://www.justice.gov/usao/career-cen ... lan-charts

When I went from clerking (I was at JSP 12 I think? Whatever coming in with one year of experience is), the salary I was offered by the USAO was pretty much exactly the same as my clerkship salary. I entered through the honors program, so maybe not typical of regular hiring, but negotiation wasn't a thing, and I think it's not very common generally. My experience has been that everyone gets paid according to their years of experience, somewhere between the 25th percentile and midpoint, plus locality pay. Some offices may set base pay higher than 25th%ile to midpoint, though I haven't had that confirmed. A lot of people in the offices I know best came out of state prosecutor gigs, so the AD scale was better pay than what they'd been making, but if you were in biglaw or something better paying, you took a pay cut to go to the USAO (not just biglaw refugees; I know someone who was a career clerk for 5 years who was making 6 figures who took a significant pay cut).

Now that said, again, I wasn't hired through the standard system, so I can't say negotiation never works, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.