Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone hear back on the recently posted General Attorney position? The vacancy announcement says "This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 1200 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 1200th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first." So no idea if that means we can expect to wait until the vacancy announcement is closed before hearing if we get offers to interview, or not.

[Anonymous User]

I emailed after the 2 weeks had passed where were supposed to receive another email and I had not and was told that the certificates are still being processed

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have experience with this position, or what is it like working at the Department of Education as an attorney?

[Anonymous User]

I recently interviewed for a position in this office. I think you can get the best idea of what attorneys there do by reviewing OCR's case/complaint overview manual. It should be available here: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ ... ocrcpm.pdf

[Anonymous User]

It seems that the office doesn't do litigation. Would this be detrimental for someone looking to actually do civil rights lit down the line?

[Anonymous User]

It seems that the office doesn't do litigation. Would this be detrimental for someone looking to actually do civil rights lit down the line?

IMO, not severely, because you'd gain significant experience in federal civil rights laws, and OCR's mode of operating resembles litigation enough that a transition would be possible. Less clear is what type of civil rights lit you could transition to: the easiest might be Plaintiff's side lit in the education area. I doubt you'd have firms knocking down the door to hire you as a litigation associate, though.