Clerkship->State AG->USAO feasible? Forum

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Clerkship->State AG->USAO feasible?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jan 13, 2022 1:13 am

Title pretty much says it, but I’m going to be finishing up a district court clerkship soon and would like to end up as an AUSA down the road. Because of geography and ties, I’m looking at a bigger city, competitive USAO office.

Would working for the stage AG and getting a bunch of litigation/trial experience that way make me marketable or is that a dead end? I don’t know if USAO offices ever hire from state AG offices, but I’m trying to think of ways to develop litigation experience quickly that also leaves other avenues open if the AUSA thing doesn’t end up working out.

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Re: Clerkship->State AG->USAO feasible?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jan 13, 2022 1:23 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Jan 13, 2022 1:13 am
Title pretty much says it, but I’m going to be finishing up a district court clerkship soon and would like to end up as an AUSA down the road. Because of geography and ties, I’m looking at a bigger city, competitive USAO office.

Would working for the stage AG and getting a bunch of litigation/trial experience that way make me marketable or is that a dead end? I don’t know if USAO offices ever hire from state AG offices, but I’m trying to think of ways to develop litigation experience quickly that also leaves other avenues open if the AUSA thing doesn’t end up working out.
Don't know if that would be a dead-end, but the more common move is definitely to a white collar boutique where you'll get more (and more varied) experience than you will in biglaw and where lots of the partners are probably former AUSAs and so can go to bat for you when you apply. I would imagine any bigger city that has a competitive USAO office also has at least one such firm, but could be wrong.

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Re: Clerkship->State AG->USAO feasible?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:10 pm

Conversely, I've seen a number of people from state AG --> USAO, though the caveat is that this has tended to be smaller legal markets. And it will depend on your local USAO's hiring preferences.

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