DOJ Honors 2019-2020 Forum

[Anonymous User]

How competitive is DOJ Honors this year? If I am from a T25 school top 25% -- Mock Trial winner what are the chances of me getting an interview?

[nixy]

Probably still depends a lot on the component.

[Anonymous User]

How competitive is DOJ Honors this year? If I am from a T25 school top 25% -- Mock Trial winner what are the chances of me getting an interview?

which components are easier to get into? What if I top 3 EOIR, Criminal Trial, and Civil

[Anonymous User]

How competitive is DOJ Honors this year? If I am from a T25 school top 25% -- Mock Trial winner what are the chances of me getting an interview?

which components are easier to get into? What if I top 3 EOIR, Criminal Trial, and Civil

I've been told that Criminal only interviews people who rank it first, but I can't verify that, so make of an anonymous comment on the internet what you will.

Anecdotally, EOIR is easier just because they hire so many people. But EOIR is also primarily hiring for IJ clerkships which are two-year terms, and so doesn't guarantee a permanent position (also many of the locations are maybe less than desirable to many people). It's also very specialized immigration experience, so if that's what you want to do, that's great, but if you want to use it as a foot in the door into DOJ generally, just be aware it may not be as helpful as you hope.

Beyond that, look at the numbers of people they're hiring to see who's casting the widest net, and try LinkedIn stalking to find honors attorneys and see what kinds of qualifications they had. My understanding (from my own experience, but again, not a hiring official so can't guarantee anything) is that for a lot of components, top top schools aren't required (there's a list somewhere of where DOJ has hired from for the Honors program and it's long and varied), but they will tend to favor excellent grades/other signs of achievement from those schools.

My sense is also that the more specialized the component is, the more demonstrated experience and commitment to the field matters. Civil and criminal are relatively generic fields of practice, right, and lots and lots of students have pertinent experience, so hiring can be based on traditional brass rings. When you move into something like ENRD and EOIR, experience/commitment can play a bigger role than raw grades.

In any case, part of the application requires you to write about why you picked the three components you picked. I think this part of the app is actually pretty important, so think about which components you can make the best pitch for - which ones are you actually most qualified for and interested in. I think DOJ is honestly interested in "fit" and a candidate's commitment to the field/experience, so while top grades/pedigree is always helpful, it's not the only way to get hired.