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Biglaw associate here. I am interested city deputy attorney positions near where I live (large metro). Please provide some sample interview questions or the best way to prepare for a panel interview. Are there hypos? What do they really stress on? Going from Biglaw to Biglaw seems fairly straight forward but I just can't find enough information on how to do well in government interviews. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Fri May 21, 2021 3:02 pm

Biglaw associate here. I am interested city deputy attorney positions near where I live (large metro). Please provide some sample interview questions or the best way to prepare for a panel interview. Are there hypos? What do they really stress on? Going from Biglaw to Biglaw seems fairly straight forward but I just can't find enough information on how to do well in government interviews. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I don't know about "well," since I haven't heard back yet, but I'm trying to do the same thing and my interview was really... Normal. They asked what kind of work I most enjoyed. They asked why I wanted to go from a firm to a public service role. They asked if I was good with the pay cut. They talked a lot about their department and the work I would do if I was hired.

There were no hypos except "what would you do if the department you're working with doesn't understand why we can't do X for them?"

My answer, which they directly said was a good answer, was that you explain it as many times and in as many ways as you have to to help them understand, without losing patience (assuming that what they want to do actually isn't possible). Then you offer and explain the best alternative you can find.

I had a second interview with some higher-up folks and they really didn't ask me anything, they just asked if I had questions, so be prepared to ask some.

I interviewed with a bunch of city attorney offices in California for non-litigation deputy city attorney positions. Some are just normal interviews, some have hypos relating to California municipal law topics. Most importantly be prepared to discuss why you want to be in public service.

Been a while but just curious if you landed this gig and if so how its going. Im currently interviewing for a city lawyer job in a large metro area and thinking about leaving big law for it!