forthecause wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 4:43 pm
Not to hijack this thread if it’s still current by asking a question of someone from a few years ago who might not even be on the forum anymore, but hopefully you or someone else reading can help me with this:
If I have a goal of becoming an AUSA or ICE prosecutor in Florida as a 300m target, what’s the best way to go about that? You mention that most new hires in the office you joined were laterals from other offices with ties to the region. Does that mean that going to a Florida school, then working my way into a border district USAO, say, and then lateraling to a FL USAO/ICE office would be just as reliable and/or quick a path as going T14 and trying to get into the same offices either straight up or by lateraling? Correct me if I’m wrong but for both paths I believe a stint in jag or prosecution might be a necessary first move, but after that, what do you/y’all think about those two paths compared in terms of reliability and time? Thanks
So, I'm the person you quoted and I don't think you're really talking about two different paths. The typical ways to get hired by a USAO are the same regardless of what school you go to or regardless of office: either clerk --> biglaw --> USAO, or local prosecution with lots of felony trials --> USAO. (There are always going to be some people who take different paths, but generalizing, these are the most common routes.) JAG can substitute for local prosecution (but you should only do that if you want to serve in the military anyway, not as a stepping stone to another job, and it's also pretty hard to get itself).
Point is, prepping to get into a non-FL USAO and then trying to lateral will look pretty much exactly like trying to get into a FL USAO. Which one you go to first will depend more on when there is a job opening and they hire you, than on one being easier to get than another. So yes, you could get into a FL USAO by working in another district first and then applying to FL when there are openings, or you could get hired into a FL USAO directly - it's really just going to depend on circumstances.
My point about people moving around was more that you're not stuck in the first office that hires you, and that having done the job of an AUSA makes you a more competitive candidate for another job as an AUSA. But you still have to get into the first office to start with, which goes back to making yourself a competitive candidate generally. Border districts do tend to hire more often than some offices (they're big and have higher turnover), so are somewhat easier, but they're still very competitive jobs (just maybe not as incredibly competitive as, say, SDNY/NDCA/CDCA). Keep in mind, though, that most of the districts in Florida are really border districts.
I don't think going to a respectable Florida school will necessarily weigh against you when applying for USAO jobs, although it will depend; I know lots and lots of non-T14 AUSAs, but there will always be some USAs/offices that will prefer T14 grads. If you want to take the clerk --> biglaw --> USAO route, obviously a T14 helps a lot just to get on that path. If you want to go local prosecution --> USAO, school pedigree is less important. A T14 generally gives you a lot more options, so all else equal, it's always probably a better bet. And I think all offices will hire out of biglaw, while not all offices love local prosecutors. But if you have to take out a lot of debt for T14 vs. little to no debt for the FL school, it's a tougher decision that boils down to a lot of personal choices.
One thing you can try is going on LinkedIn and searching for Assistant US Attorney + Florida, and see what paths people took to get there.
You are exceedingly unlikely to work for a USAO right out of school regardless of where you attend. At the very least, you will have to clerk first (most of the local prosecutor types I know didn't clerk, but they worked for at least a few years). So you will need to figure out what path works better for you.
I'm not sure what you mean by ICE prosecutor - that's not really a thing. ICE doesn't do criminal stuff, it's all administrative. Many ICE attorneys are more like legal advisors for the agency. If you mean you want to work in immigration court deporting people, you'd work as a trial attorney in ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). (Confusingly, there may be references to such attorneys exercising prosecutorial discretion, but they're not really called prosecutors.) I'm not sure about the path to such a job, but it's not the same as AUSA.