Top Law Schools

Hey all,

I'm currently a 3L and will be joining DOJ as an honors hire in September. I'll be in one of the main litigating components. Any idea what kind of hours I'll be pulling?

I worked as a summer associate at two Vault T20 law firms and absolutely hated billable hours, hence why I'm going to DOJ. The idea of having to bill 2000 hours per year made me sick. I've read conflicting reports on how many hours DOJ attorneys work, and most of the posts I've seen on these forums are from 4 to 6 years ago. I spent half a summer with my DOJ component and I found it hard to reach people after 5:00pm or on the weekends, but I never straight up asked someone how many hours they work. In fact, I was specifically advised not to since, according to my advisors, DOJ doesn't want to hire people who are just in it for the lifestyle.

Thanks in advance.

Following. I've had similar experiences with my DOJ section and at the state level.

I honestly think it depends on what component and the individual. Personally, I've seen attorneys just do 9-5 every day and never work weekends. They tended to get slower paced, less interesting (in my opinion), low stake matters. Meanwhile, there were attorneys putting in BL hours who were getting more fast paced and higher stake matters. A lot of these attorneys ended up lateralling to firms. I think you can see a correlation there. It's all optics tbh.