District Attorney Salaries Across the US Forum

[Clandestine]

Is anyone familiar with a website with a comprehensive list of Assistant/deputy district attorney salary scales for varying counties across the US? Or, if you happen to be familiar with the starting salary of your local ADA, would you be willing to share that information? Thanks!

[thelawguy777]

ADA friend in Idaho with 3 years in... Making around $35K...

Ouch... That's public interest.

[LvingLegend]

Starting salary in my county (Santa Clara, CA) is about 90,000

[Vincent Vega]

Starting salary in my county (Santa Clara, CA) is about 90,000

Legit? I could live on that for sure.

[LvingLegend]

http://agency.governmentjobs.com/santac ... ewOnly=yes

Starting salary is $92,138.76 - $96,758.28 Annually


After five years the salary jumps to $156,944.16 - $195,340.92 Annually. This is the same pay rate for all attorneys (PD, Child Services, etc.) for the county.

[Vincent Vega]

I got really excited seeing this, and I looked into it, but it seems that assistant state's attorneys (equivalent to ADA) in Illinois start at $50K. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Bruiser]

Don't forget to look at the cost of living in each of these areas. That's a nice salary in Santa Ana but isn't it pretty expensive to live there? So that salary might not be as great as it seems if an average house is $500,000. I am sure the cost of living in Idaho is a lot less but $35,000 is still pretty bad.

[Kobe_Teeth]

in a very rural part of IL i know a guy making 90k...
which is like the equivalent of about 150k in Chicago...

[09042014]

in a very rural part of IL i know a guy making 90k...
which is like the equivalent of about 150k in Chicago...

How rural?

A lot of the big cities pay extremely poorly because they can. Do you know how many attorneys JMLS, ChiKent, DePaul, and Loyola put out? Most of those grads would kill for 50K and IBR.

[Esc]

ADAs have starting salaries around $50-55k in most Texas counties, with promotions to $100-125k after 15 years. But remember that cost of living is much lower here, so that money goes a lot further than it would in California or NY.

[Vincent Vega]

in a very rural part of IL i know a guy making 90k...
which is like the equivalent of about 150k in Chicago...

I looked on the State of Illinois website, and it says starting salary for ASA is $50,000 in counties with 200,000+ residents. It looked like it was last updated in 2004, though. You get pay raises with each year of service. So your $90K guy might have been working for a really long time, or got promoted to state's attorney.

[kalvano]

Dallas ADA starts about $56K, I believe.

Which is equivalent to close to $100K in Chicago or NYC.

[09042014]

Dallas ADA starts about $56K, I believe.

Which is equivalent to close to $100K in Chicago or NYC.

Its more like 68,000 in Chicago. Real estate in Chicago is reasonable. No way does it cost double to live in Chicago.

[Clandestine]

Halibut6, I was also surprised to see the low pay in CHI. I expected their pay to be on par with some of the larger CA counties. Anyone have information for Denver Co.? I couldn't find the pay scale on their website.

[newyorker88]

Bronx ADA starts at 54k plus benefits

*Also there is a NYC residency requirement

[RickyRoe]

The benefits are great, I know that much. How competitive are these positions?

[newyorker88]

The benefits are great, I know that much. How competitive are these positions?

This is a couple years old but the most thorough breakdown I saw.

"In 2005, approximately 1,000 individuals from 96 law schools applied for the position of Bronx assistant district attorney for the Class of 2006. Of these applicants, 576 (57%) had first-round interviews, 304 (30%) had second (panel) interviews, and 129 (13%) were interviewed by the District Attorney. Mr. Johnson appointed 54 (5%) of the original applicants as assistant district attorneys for the Class of 2006."

http://bronxda.nyc.gov/frames.html

[Vincent Vega]

The benefits are great, I know that much. How competitive are these positions?

This is a couple years old but the most thorough breakdown I saw.

"In 2005, approximately 1,000 individuals from 96 law schools applied for the position of Bronx assistant district attorney for the Class of 2006. Of these applicants, 576 (57%) had first-round interviews, 304 (30%) had second (panel) interviews, and 129 (13%) were interviewed by the District Attorney. Mr. Johnson appointed 54 (5%) of the original applicants as assistant district attorneys for the Class of 2006."

http://bronxda.nyc.gov/frames.html

In those days, most of the applicants were probably from T3 and T4. ITE, there are probably many T1 students applying for that position.

[Kobe_Teeth]

in a very rural part of IL i know a guy making 90k...
which is like the equivalent of about 150k in Chicago...

How rural?

A lot of the big cities pay extremely poorly because they can. Do you know how many attorneys JMLS, ChiKent, DePaul, and Loyola put out? Most of those grads would kill for 50K and IBR.

5000 people in the town that the courthouse is in, which is of course the county seat.

[newyorker88]

in a very rural part of IL i know a guy making 90k...
which is like the equivalent of about 150k in Chicago...

How rural?

A lot of the big cities pay extremely poorly because they can. Do you know how many attorneys JMLS, ChiKent, DePaul, and Loyola put out? Most of those grads would kill for 50K and IBR.

5000 people in the town that the courthouse is in, which is of course the county seat.

damn that's rural. I wonder many available positions they have each year? can't be that many

[09042014]

in a very rural part of IL i know a guy making 90k...
which is like the equivalent of about 150k in Chicago...

How rural?

A lot of the big cities pay extremely poorly because they can. Do you know how many attorneys JMLS, ChiKent, DePaul, and Loyola put out? Most of those grads would kill for 50K and IBR.

5000 people in the town that the courthouse is in, which is of course the county seat.

damn that's rural. I wonder many available positions they have each year? can't be that many

I'd be shocked if it was even 1. Probably like 1 every 5-10 years.

I know a similarly rural town in Wisconsin that only has 1 DA and 1 ADA.

[Vincent Vega]

State's attorneys in Illinois are hired under the same pay scale. Counties cannot set their own salary numbers. And the rule is that the more residents in a county, the more the pay for ASAs. I don't know anything about your anecdotal evidence, but it goes against what the law says.

See: link

(1) In counties with fewer than 30,000 inhabitants, one at $35,000.
(2) In counties with 30,000 or more but fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, one at $45,000.
(3) In counties with 100,000 or more but fewer than 300,000 inhabitants, 2 at $45,000 each.
(4) In counties, other than Cook County, with 300,000 or more inhabitants, 4 at $50,000 each.

The above was yearly hiring quota and starting salary for non-Cook County ASAs.

EDIT: Reading over it again, it seems this isn't the hiring quota, but the entire staffing budget for ASAs. Feel free to read the full text over and see where my confusion is coming from.

[kalvano]

Dallas ADA starts about $56K, I believe.

Which is equivalent to close to $100K in Chicago or NYC.

Its more like 68,000 in Chicago. Real estate in Chicago is reasonable. No way does it cost double to live in Chicago.

I looked at what it costs to live in Chicago when I was applying to schools. As compared to Texas, it's stupidly high.

[09042014]

Dallas ADA starts about $56K, I believe.

Which is equivalent to close to $100K in Chicago or NYC.

Its more like 68,000 in Chicago. Real estate in Chicago is reasonable. No way does it cost double to live in Chicago.

I looked at what it costs to live in Chicago when I was applying to schools. As compared to Texas, it's stupidly high.

You can find two bed condos for 200,000 in Lincoln Park, a nice area of Chicago. If you want to slum it up much cheaper.

[vanwinkle]

Dallas ADA starts about $56K, I believe.

Which is equivalent to close to $100K in Chicago or NYC.

Its more like 68,000 in Chicago. Real estate in Chicago is reasonable. No way does it cost double to live in Chicago.

I looked at what it costs to live in Chicago when I was applying to schools. As compared to Texas, it's stupidly high.

You can find two bed condos for 200,000 in Lincoln Park, a nice area of Chicago. If you want to slum it up much cheaper.

Before I decided I was going to go to law school and leave Dallas, I considered buying a nice 2BR condo in a nice neighborhood (not far from SMU, would've had good rental/resale value) for about $110K there. If you're willing to slum it up you can do much cheaper. Not kidding.