AUSA Hiring Trump Forum

[AUSA3B]

How do people think the new Trump administration will affect USAO hiring in SDNY/EDNY/CDCA/NDIL/EDVA?

I’ve been out of school since before his first term, and my sense was that hiring was not necessarily any easier during his last administration. That said, I wonder if there will be mass resignations.

I also wonder if conservative appointees will have slightly different hiring criteria (e.g. less about BL, school, and clerkships and perhaps more open to ADAs).

I understand any answer is speculative. But curious what people think.

[Chokenhauer]

The old U.S. Attorneys will leave. Trump will appoint new U.S. Attorneys. Those U.S. Attorneys will probably be conservative and/or Republicans, and they’ll have their own view on hiring and office priorities. I don’t think they can be neatly categorized into how they hire. Some will prefer ADAs, others will prefer Big Law types. I am willing to bet that the new U.S. Attorneys resemble the ones from the first term. And I doubt there will be any mass resignations. I also wonder if there might be a hiring freeze for a bit, like there was in 2017.

(As an aside, I wonder if Trump will adhere to Project 2025’s promise to put AUSAs on the GS Scale.)

[Anonymous User]

DOJ will lose funding and there will be hiring freezes. Also, some of the judges who had stronger ties to USAOs under the old administration will lose that special pull naturally as a new administration will come in. There will be more of an emphasis on violent crime and narcotics than white collar and corruption cases.

[Anonymous User]

Already some hiring freezes in effect which I expect will continue in new admin.

[Anonymous User]

(As an aside, I wonder if Trump will adhere to Project 2025’s promise to put AUSAs on the GS Scale.)

I've missed this - can you explain more?

[Chokenhauer]

(As an aside, I wonder if Trump will adhere to Project 2025’s promise to put AUSAs on the GS Scale.)

I've missed this - can you explain more?

From page 571 of the Mandate for Leadership:

“To ensure that the department can attract and retain top legal talent away from Washington D.C., the next conservative Administration should seek congressional reform of the pay scale used for Assistant United States Attorneys in the field. At a minimum, that reform should include a proposal to compensate Assistant United States Attorneys on at least the same basis as attorneys employed by Main Justice who are compensated under the GS scale.”

https://static.project2025.org/2025_Man ... p_FULL.pdf

[Anonymous User]

DOJ will lose funding and there will be hiring freezes. Also, some of the judges who had stronger ties to USAOs under the old administration will lose that special pull naturally as a new administration will come in. There will be more of an emphasis on violent crime and narcotics than white collar and corruption cases.

Re DOJ funding, I think it will depend more on who ends up as AG (sorry if there are names out there already, I haven’t been paying attention). There was lots of funding for USAOs during the first Trump admin, though you’re right it tended to focus on guns/drugs. Sessions particularly was an old-school law and order prosecutor and was good at getting money. Obviously Trump hates DOJ now, so more complicated, and you may end up right, but it really depends on the AG. (Trump opened his first admin with a hiring freeze, but once it expired there was quite a bit of hiring.)

Re judges - I mean, yes, sort of, but this isn’t a Trump thing, this is your normal change of admin thing, and judges who have pull with USAOs usually have longer/deeper relationships with the offices than just a connection to one admin. The judges that feed to my district, for instance, have been doing so for years, not just under the last 3-ish years of the current USA. USAOs are much more embedded in their local community than connected to Main Justice.

Also agree with an earlier post that there’s no neat correlation between a conservative/Republican USA and hiring criteria. It will depend on the USA (with some possible influence from pre-existing office culture), and there are definitely conservatives who favor traditional “elite” qualifications.

As for mass resignations - lifers are still going to life. For people for whom the gig is just a stepping stone to big law partner or some other gig elsewhere, maybe it will alter their timeline. Maybe that’s particularly the case in the specific offices the OP mentioned; I think the revolving door from USAO to biglaw partnership is not actually very common anymore. But that could be a function of the offices I know best.

[Anonymous User]

Any idea on how the new admin will alter prior drug use?

This is something that has evolved quite a bit in recent years—from post-bar drug use being an absolute ding to post-bar marijuana use being okay if not within last 12 months, and harder drugs maybe okay if outside 7 year window.

I also know fedgov is in process of tweaking sf-86 form to only go back 5 years, but not sure how this would impact OARM suitability since there’s a question that unambiguously asks any “post-bar drug use” ever.

[AUSA3B]

Does anyone know anything useful about the new SDNY pick? Doesn't appear to have a background in prosecution, but otherwise seems mainstream.

[Anonymous User]

He was nominated in 2020 but was never confirmed. His lack of criminal prosecution background could hurt him depending on how deferential the Senate is to Trump's picks. But he has better odds of being confirmed this time, and is certainly mainstream. Curious to see who Trump picks for E.D.N.Y. as well.

[Anonymous User]

My sense is there will not be a lot of hiring for the next few months and hiring was pretty slow even before.