Manhattan DA to AUSA Forum

[Anonymous User]

How doable is this? I’m sure other factors like the person’s LS, clerking, etc. will play in. But generally speaking, what does this look like?

[Anonymous User]

Caveat is that if you’re asking specifically about SDNY/EDNY, I don’t know how much they hire local prosecutors. But in other districts, I’ve seen a bunch of local prosecutors go to USAOs, after getting a lot of felony trial experience. A friend of mine had I think 52 felony trials. Others, I don’t know how many trials, but probably 4-10 years experience?

If an office wants to hire for trial readiness, they’re more likely to hire for experience and local connections than elite law school, clerking, or top grades. Certainly if a local prosecutor has those things, that’s great, but at least in a lot of jurisdictions, fewer people in local prosecution tend to have that background.

But generally it depends on the USA’s priorities in hiring, and the needs of the office and your experience. For instance, I know a Biden appointee USA who came from a local prosecution office and has hired only people from their old office and other local offices. Probably more common (esp in major metros) is USAs who came out of biglaw valuing traditional biglaw qualifications. Others fall somewhere in between.

Conversely, I know someone who went to a USAO that usually hires primarily out of biglaw, but they had a lot of great experience prosecuting a particular kind of offense that the office wanted to tackle more. Or an office will get funding for a specific position that a local prosecutor would be a good fit for
(often drugs or guns).

I think as a gross generalization, high volume border districts and more rural districts are going to be more open to hiring out of local prosecution, though I’m pretty sure all districts will on occasion. I also think districts in smaller
legal markets hire more out of local prosecution because so many local alums will all know each other.

But this is all me generalizing, it really depends most on what the USA values.

Otherwise, you want to get as much experience as you can with felony offenses that transfer to a USAO - drug investigations, firearms, white collar crime, child sex abuse material.

[Anonymous User]

EDNY hires ex-ADAs; SDNY does not.

For EDNY, many of the former ADAs did a clerkship--be it at the federal magistrate level--though it is not strictly required. They also spent 10+ years at DA's offices (as opposed to people who come from large law firms who often come after 4-6 years in practice) and tended to be in more senior units or supervisors. It's not something you are going to get after finishing your three year commitment.

Many of the ADAs who joined the EDNY were very high-caliber. They were the go-to people for the difficult trials, the people who could write excellent motions and wouldn't rely on the Workbench templates, and were generally well-liked in their Bureaus.

If you're starting at DANY this fall and aspire to go federal, work hard, volunteer for extra things like Hate Crimes call, network well, especially with former federal law clerks in the office, and offer to help people on trial.

Good luck! ADA -> AUSA can be done in NYC, but it's tough.

[Anonymous User]

I don't think it’s very common in SDNY because hiring there seems to just focus on the same types of background. Don’t know about EDNY though.

[Anonymous User]

I don't think it’s very common in SDNY because hiring there seems to just focus on the same types of background. Don’t know about EDNY though.

I’m the OP from above you - this is my impression as well, though it’s purely anecdotal (every AUSA from SDNY I’ve interacted with is a T14 —> clerk —> biglaw type). I think in part this is b/c being USA of SDNY is such a prominent position, it almost invariably goes to people with top school, top clerkship, top firm (and maybe government service) credentials, and they tend to hire for those things as well.

For instance, compare Damian Williams’ credentials with the credentials for the USA for the District of Maine (just b/c they were nominated at the same time so their bios are near each other) - McElwee went to Bowdoin/U Maine, started as a local prosecutor, then joined the USAO and was appointed from that role. Williams is a Harvard/Cambridge/Yale grad with DC Cir/SCOTUS clerkships, biglaw, then USAO experience, heading their securities fraud task force. Those two people are likely to have different values in hiring.