Top Law Schools

Apologies that I'm a bit naive about the federal prosecutor world. Obviously, working on the criminal side in NYC or LA would be very competitive. I'm more concerned about more secondary markets (Indy, Minneapolis, Phoenix, etc.) Say you're median (or even top 1/3) at a T30 school in the secondary market (Indiana, Minnesota, ASU or UA to stick with the examples), would you have any shot at a AUSA spot in that market? I would assume a clerkship would probably be the route most take first, but I'd think it isn't necessary?

To me, I'd think these are clearly harder to get than county prosecution, but not as competitive as BigLaw in those areas.

Flyover markets aren’t horribly competitive, but they still require at least one year of post-bar experience. Most require two years or more. Crim AUSA spots are generally more competitive than Civil.

Depending on the district, the office may prefer to hire almost exclusively from big law or state prosecutor’s offices.

AUSA positions are insanely competitive even in those districts:

1. AUSA is a very desirable exit option for litigators at firms. So you have a bunch of biglaw litigators trying to get AUSA at SDNY/EDNY/EDVA, but there are but so many slots at the most competitive offices. While some litigators just give up if they don't get AUSA at one of those districts, many treat it like clerkships and apply broadly. So desirable secondary markets like Phoenix see a lot of applications.

2. While their hiring standards aren't as rigid as say SDNY or EDVA, they also take a broader application pool for far fewer spots. You'll have biglaw associates/ADAs/etc all applying for the few spots that come up each year. What are the odds that among similarly situated applicants, yours gets the nod.

I don't think median from a school in the target market is enough to be competitive. I think you should get a federal clerkship, a few years of relevant experience and apply broadly. Banking on getting an AUSA position in a particular market is silly. So many variables go into hiring. If you definitely want to be an AUSA, you have to prepare to apply broadly. If you have your heart set on a particular district, you need to prepare for the likely scenario of perhaps applying a few times and developing connections.

Eggs wrote:To me, I'd think these are clearly harder to get than county prosecution, but not as competitive as BigLaw in those areas.

As people have suggested, that's not necessarily true. Even in small legal markets there are more firm openings than there are AUSA openings.

Based on personal experience applying, going to a strong local school isn't usually a problem, but grades need to be pretty decent (definitely higher than median), and a federal clerkship is all but required these days.

Basically I agree with what the others in this thread have said.

I'm going to push back just a little bit on some of these other posts. I'm a current fed clerk in a border district and I honestly do not think getting an AUSA position here would be that difficult (top 1/3 at a T30 may be fine, especially if you have local ties and maybe some relevant externing or summer experience.) It's partially because they have been adding AUSA positions to these districts and partially because I really don't think these jobs are that desirable (because your basically dealing with illegal entry and trafficking exclusively in a high volume district I think its probably more of a churn then most AUSA positions.)

I will say, based off the filings I've seen from the AUSAs here - they ain't rockstar lawyers.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm going to push back just a little bit on some of these other posts. I'm a current fed clerk in a border district and I honestly do not think getting an AUSA position here would be that difficult (top 1/3 at a T30 may be fine, especially if you have local ties and maybe some relevant externing or summer experience.) It's partially because they have been adding AUSA positions to these districts and partially because I really don't think these jobs are that desirable (because your basically dealing with illegal entry and trafficking exclusively in a high volume district I think its probably more of a churn then most AUSA positions.)

I will say, based off the filings I've seen from the AUSAs here - they ain't rockstar lawyers.

I used to be an AUSA in a border district. No, it’s not SDNY competitive, and there is a certain amount of churn, but those offices still get lots of applications, and probably the best way to get hired is to know people there, OR have the classic biglaw kinds of qualifications OR lots of relevant prosecution experience. None of these things lend themselves to a median T30 student getting an AUSA slot right out of school, so the OP is going to have to go do something else to start anyway.

But I also think the offices the OP references - Indy and Mpls are going to be VERY different than a true border office (I’d even say that Phx is less border churn than Tucson/San Diego/TX offices on the border; in the same way, ABQ is less border churn than Las Cruces). Indy and Mpls and Phx, places the OP referenced, are going to hire differently than Tucson/El Paso/San Diego/Las Cruces. Mostly I think there’s going to be a big emphasis on clerks - almost every new AUSA I’ve met in the last 5-ish years from those kinds of offices has clerked.

Tl;dr - it’s easier to get a true border AUSA gig, but easier doesn’t necessarily mean easy, and it’s not clear that’s what the OP was looking at.

What kind of weight is given to school pedigree or grades during the AUSA hiring process for the less competitive offices in the "flyover" districts? Say someone comes with straight or mostly Ps from Yale or Stanford after 3 or 4 years of work experience - would they have a shot?