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How prestigious/competitive is CA DOJ's appellate group? They've obviously been litigating some high profile cases lately (e.g., CA v. Texas), and I was wondering if anyone has any idea about how competitive it is to do appellate work for the state? I briefly glanced at some of the attorneys on the filings, and they are almost exclusively HYS, prestigious clerkship (think 9th Cir or SCOTUS), and big law. Is that the norm?

If you're talking about the CA Solicitor's office, it is remarkably competitive. Several former SCOTUS clerks have joined recently.

If you mean the other sections that handle criminal and civil appeals, it's not that competitive, but they generally want people with a decent amount of experience.

burritotaco wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 09, 2020 2:34 pm

If you're talking about the CA Solicitor's office, it is remarkably competitive. Several former SCOTUS clerks have joined recently.

If you mean the other sections that handle criminal and civil appeals, it's not that competitive, but they generally want people with a decent amount of experience.

Yeah, I was referring to the CA Solicitor's office. Is it a pretty small group? Damn. I just looked up the current Solicitor General and he's super impressive — DC Cir --> SCOTUS --> Deputy Counsel to VP Biden --> MTO --> CA DOJ

I don’t think that’s particularly unusual for SGs, especially for a big state like CA.

Keep in mind that a lot of sections of the California AG's office take their own appeals, so I'd challenge the idea that the SG's office is *the* appellate group for CA DOJ. Depending on your subject matter interest, you might want to check out other sections too (i.e. Government Law, which iirc has been doing a ton of appellate work defending the state's covid restrictions).


edit accidental anon - Basileus59