AUSA/USAO hiring Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anon AUSA above. I’m sorry to say that I have no idea. I’ve never heard it mentioned or discussed. That said, when I’ve gone to national trainings for AUSAs I would say I’ve seen more people with visible disabilities than I typically do in crowds of lawyers, but beyond that I can’t say.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have a sense of how long it takes to hear from EDNY? I had my 1st and 2nd round late last month, and am waiting to hear. Would I get bad news via snail mail? Good news via phone call?

[Anonymous User]

Good news should come by phone; if your interviews etc were arranged via e-mail that's probably how a rejection will come (though I haven't been rejected by EDNY specifically so can't say for certain).

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have a sense of how long it takes to hear from EDNY? I had my 1st and 2nd round late last month, and am waiting to hear. Would I get bad news via snail mail? Good news via phone call?

My understanding is that that is correct.

[mariamacapa]

I just received an invitation to interview for an appellate AUSA position. It will be a 45-minute panel interview including the USAO. What should I expect? This is the first time I have ever gotten an interview.

[mariamacapa]

I had my appellate interview and it was super relaxed. No gotcha questions, just basic getting to know you questions. I have heard that appellate and also civil interviews are generally pretty easy. It's the criminal interviews that are the most intense and have the most rounds.

[Anonymous User]

I had my appellate interview and it was super relaxed. No gotcha questions, just basic getting to know you questions. I have heard that appellate and also civil interviews are generally pretty easy. It's the criminal interviews that are the most intense and have the most rounds.

My appellate interview was similar. It was a few hours with a few different people, but it was a fairly straightforward interview.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know how AUSA pay works? Do you move up the chart each year? Or move over? Or neither? Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know how AUSA pay works? Do you move up the chart each year? Or move over? Or neither? Thanks!

It's some of both. Looking at https://www.justice.gov/usao/career-cen ... lan-charts, your grade on the AD-scale is determined by your years of experience. If a grade requires, say, 3 years' experience (like AD-23), at the first salary review after your clock ticks over to 3 years, you move up to that grade. (The salary reviews are in the spring and the increase kicks in only at the annual review, not at the time you accumulated the 3 years.) Experience here = any experience as a practicing lawyer, not as an AUSA. After you hit 4 years' experience you automatically bump up a grade each year till you hit 9 or more years. Then you sit at the same AD-grade (unless you become a supervisory type of person).

Within your AD grade, your salary falls somewhere along the horizontal range identified by min/25th percentile/midpoint/75th percentile/max. This part is fairly fuzzy and is determined in part by your USA's choices (some offices set a floor at the 25th percentile, some offices set the percentile higher) and your performance review. For instance, you can't be paid higher than the 75th percentile in your recruitment year/if your evaluation was "successful." You can't be paid less than the 25th percentile and can be paid up to the max if your evaluation is "outstanding." If you really really suck your salary could be lower. You might theoretically get more than max, but I believe that's only for people previously in federal service who were making more than the AD-scale max - i.e. you shouldn't have to take a pay cut changing jobs within the government if you're that kind of a desirable candidate. (I think changing jobs from private practice to federal, you're out of luck - they figure you should know what you're getting into.)

You can get a percentile bump (basically a merit raise) at the same time as a grade bump, though in my experience these percentile bumps are fairly minimal (I think that's based on my offices' general fiscal policies and not their perception of my value, but who knows!). I think once you're sitting at AD-29, actual merit raises become a much bigger thing, but I don't know yet from personal experience how that works. I do think office policy/budget pays a fairly big role here; I think that each office has some discretion to use the annual budget increase to give more people smaller increases, or fewer people larger increases. Sometimes the feds actually freeze salaries and no one will get anything.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Anyone heard from the WDPA in the past month? Smaller district but I figured it's worth asking.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone heard from the WDPA in the past month? Smaller district but I figured it's worth asking.

Nope. I received a "notice of results" back in November stating the app was referred, but that's it. What about you?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone heard from the WDPA in the past month? Smaller district but I figured it's worth asking.

Nope. I received a "notice of results" back in November stating the app was referred, but that's it. What about you?

Huh. I was thinking of the posting that just closed in December for a criminal ausa role. You must have applied even before that.

[anonprosecutor]

Likewise, anyone hear anything from NDOH or SDOH? I have it on good authority that EDMI is interviewing.

[Anonymous User]

While we're at it.. SDFL?

[Anonymous User]

Likewise, anyone hear anything from NDOH or SDOH? I have it on good authority that EDMI is interviewing.

Position in Dayton posted late last night.

[Anonymous User]

Likewise, anyone hear anything from NDOH or SDOH? I have it on good authority that EDMI is interviewing.

SDOH started interviewing for Cincinnati late last week.

[anonprosecutor]

I saw the new posting for Dayton. As I recall the Cincinnati position was posted with a Dayton option in December. Are they interviewing in Dayton too or does the new posting cover that? If anyone knows....seems confusing that they posted another opening while they're interviewing and it's not like Dayton and Cincinnati aren't in the same legal market.

[Anonymous User]

I saw the new posting for Dayton. As I recall the Cincinnati position was posted with a Dayton option in December. Are they interviewing in Dayton too or does the new posting cover that? If anyone knows....seems confusing that they posted another opening while they're interviewing and it's not like Dayton and Cincinnati aren't in the same legal market.

I can only confirm that they were interviewing for Cincinnati. I don't know about Dayton.

[Anonymous User]

While we're at it.. SDFL?

I applied to their postings a few weeks ago. Nothing yet.

[Anonymous User]

Anything from sdny or edny?

[Anonymous User]

Anything from N.D.Ga. or E.D.Pa.?

[Anonymous User]

US magistrate clerk, mid-way through yearlong clerkship in non-prestigious district, with two years of state criminal trial experience and roughly a year of appellate criminal experience before clerkship. Should I begin applying to USAO openings? Can anyone guess my chances at "fly over" offices?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone hear about either the Criminal or Civil AUSA positions in DNJ?

[andythefir]

US magistrate clerk, mid-way through yearlong clerkship in non-prestigious district, with two years of state criminal trial experience and roughly a year of appellate criminal experience before clerkship. Should I begin applying to USAO openings? Can anyone guess my chances at "fly over" offices?

First, I don’t think flyover v coast/big city is a helpful distinction. Some offices in, say, Iowa or Idaho will be way harder to crack than you think because 1 the entire bar wants to work there, 2 people who go there stay for their careers, which means there’s very little turnover, and 3 neither white shoe firms nor SDNY give a rip you worked there, so even if you were to get an offer, it wouldn’t help you the way you think it would.

A much more helpful distinction is border/not border. Border usaos are sooooo much easier to get into because they suck sooooo bad. It’s not impossible to go Del Rio>Chicago, but it’s probably not happening, either. The problem for you catching onto a border office is you may have too much experience, so they’ll have to pay you more than you want.