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Weighing two pre-OCI offers, one from NY biglaw and one from DC biglaw. Ultimate goal is government (DOJ/USAO, ideally). Would the DC firm be better for that b/c of its location, or does it not really matter?

You'll notice most federal attorneys come from DC biglaw if you click around the linkedin profiles. This is really just because many DC biglaw practices are regulatory focused. Of course, certain finance related agencies might have more for NY biglaw folks, but the general consensus is that DC biglaw is the better route for federal agency. AUSA, on the other hand, is a different matter.

deference wrote:You'll notice most federal attorneys come from DC biglaw if you click around the linkedin profiles. This is really just because many DC biglaw practices are regulatory focused. Of course, certain finance related agencies might have more for NY biglaw folks, but the general consensus is that DC biglaw is the better route for federal agency. AUSA, on the other hand, is a different matter.

I mean, if I wanted to do SEC Enforcement in NY, I'm pretty sure I'd want to be in a NY BigLaw firm first. isn't the answer basically "if you want to do federal work in DC you should practice in DC and if you want to do it in NY you should work in NY"

Anecdotal - I was at a government agency this summer, and some of the attorneys came from NY and CA. Most from DC, naturally, but qualified is qualified.

Assuming for the sake of argument that you have no ties to anything and are making this decision in a vacuum, dc is clearly the credited play for your specific goals. I suppose I’m just not sure how anybody could really argue otherwise, but fire away (that’s why we are all here,right?).