What do people get asked about at ADA interviews? Forum

[ohsaycanyousee]

I'm in civil law now and looking to switch. Trying to prep, and have no idea what I will get asked. One of the ADAs I talked to said you are asked crim law questions and given crim law hypotheticals, which is totally different than biglaw interviews. Any help will be much appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

Google prosecutor hypotheticals or similar and you’ll get examples. They often have to do with ethics and disclosure issues. One classic one is something like, “It’s the morning of trial and you get a phone call telling you that your star witness has dropped dead. You go to court and before you can say anything, the defense attorney walks up and says their client wants to plead. What do you do?” Some offices give you facts and ask you to do an opening argument. I think there’s are threads on this site tracking applications each year and they often has pertinent info.

Keep in mind that most offices are more interested in your thought process and how you work out your answer than that you come up with the “right” answer. I don’t think you can become an expert before walking in, but if you took Crim Pro it might make sense to review your outline or similar if you have it.

I also think prosecutors are a bit more likely to do the cold/hostile interview to see how you handle opposition than in firms.

[andythefir]

Completely depends on the office/market and whether you’re being evaluated for an entry or mid-level position. For entry level positions or places that are desperate for people they’re looking for 1 will you be able to learn from being thrown into mag/metro court and 2 will you stick around long enough for a return on their investment because A you’re looking to leverage up to a USAO or more prestigious DA job, B you’re not from the region and unlikely to stay, or C you’re such a knucklehead that you’ll never be able to run with the office’s most serious cases.

For more experienced interviews, it will be asking about your biggest cases, what kind of cases you like, how many trials you’ve done. I don’t doubt the moral hypotheticals or mock openings exist, but I’ve never experienced them, nor do I think they’re particularly helpful exercises.

[Anonymous User]

It obviously depends on the office, but many offices do use hypotheticals/mock trial bits (again, check out the general ADA/prosecutor application threads that discuss these things - I've been given hypotheticals and a friend had to do a mock open or close, I forget which), and not considering them very helpful exercises doesn't mean offices don't do them.

[ohsaycanyousee]

Thank you very much for the responses! Really appreciate it.