DC Superior Court AUSA offer after starting at State DA’s office - worth it? Forum

[aristotle502]

Hi all! I just received an offer from the DC Superior Court to start as an AUSA in about two months. The problem is, I just started a job with a state’s attorney’s office as an appellate litigator a month ago after hearing nothing on my application for months. Now, I’m in a quandry - do I quit this job after only working there for three months because this is a great opportunity, or is this a stupid move? Alternatively, I’m concerned that if I turn down the AUSA offer now reapplying in a year or so will unsuccessful. Any advice appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

Hi! Congratulations. Would you mind sharing your hiring timeline? I applied earlier this year as well and I am curious on how long it takes to complete the process. Thank you in advance for anything you're willing to share.

[Lawfully]

The advice is pick the one that’s going to make you happy.

I don’t think there’s a wrong answer here. The USAO-DC Superior Court Division offers an amazing opportunity for those that want to pursue justice while gaining and employing trial skills.

Alternatively, you must have resonated with the state appellate litigation position or you wouldn’t have applied for and taken it. Though, I can’t really say what this opportunity presents because I just don’t have the knowledge.

That said, I don’t think either position would hold it against you for choosing one over the other. Lawyers move all the time, and hiring timelines are all over the place. It’s more common than you think for newly hired lawyers to move to a different position, firm, or agency.

The attendant circumstances might not be the same in a year at USAO-DC, but that doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be unsuccessful.

[Anonymous User]

What job would you rather have/do? Is there a reason you anticipate reapplying to be a DC Superior Court AUSA in a year or so? If you want the AUSA gig, then it’s worth quitting the other job after a short time (although don’t quit until your background check is resolved of course) - that is, if you feel like you have to stay where you are a “respectable” amount of time and then you’d try to go to the USAO, I don’t think you need to look at it like that. If your goal is the USAO, you don’t have to pass on it just b/c you recently took a job elsewhere. One quick job hop isn’t a big problem, it only starts to be a problem when it’s a repeated pattern.

That AUSA position is going to be fairly similar to working in a state’s attorney’s office as a line prosecutor given the nature of the office. Do you want trial work or do you want to do appellate work? How does the pay compare? What are the comparative workloads like?

Obviously there’s all the political stuff around federal employment right now, too. My gut feeling is that the Superior Court section of the DC USAO isn’t going to be *that* affected by politics because a lot of the political stuff going on doesn’t really affect everyday things like prosecuting your average theft, assault, burglary, etc cases. But I have no idea what the culture/morale in that office is like right now. It might not be the *best* time to join that office, if you like the office where you are now. If you can, you might want to talk to some current AUSAs and try to get a candid take on what things are like right now.

All that said, if you turn the job down now on the basis that you just started a new position so you’re no longer looking, no one will blink an eye, and no one will have a problem with considering you again later should you want to reapply. In fact, turning down an offer probably makes less of a negative impression than leaving a new job after only a few months.

[Anonymous User]

Hi would you mind sharing your hiring timeline for USAO-DC? I’m curious on how long it takes. Thx

[aristotle502]

Ultimately I would rather have the AUSA job because of the potential upward mobility, though in terms of day to day tasks I think I prefer my current position as I work exclusively on criminal appeals, which has always been my goal and I would be sad to leave it. The reason for the timeline complexity is that my spouse has a one year clerkship in my current location and will be returning to a DC firm afterwards. So taking this job would mean almost a year of mid-distance (seeing each other on weekends at most), double rent, moving complexities, etc.

On the other hand, I’m concerned at how unpredictable government hiring can be, and I worry that even if the Superior Court hiring team wouldn’t hold it against me if I turned down the offer, the next opportunity could be a while down the line once you account for the background check and time between interviews. And that would potentially mean long distance with my spouse in the future and/or lots of scrambling and applying to back up jobs, which I’d also prefer to avoid.

[Anonymous User]

Hello, congrats on the offer, would you mind sharing what your hiring timeline was like?

[Anonymous User]

Hello, congrats on the offer, would you mind sharing what your hiring timeline was like?

[Anonymous User]

Applied in Feb, first interview in May, second and third interviews in July.

[Wild Card]

From reading the threads and stray posts here, I get the sense that there's not much mobility from the DC Superior Court. Like, people go into it hoping to convert to something else, and they're stuck there for 5-7 years or something. Not that it's a bad thing, if it's what you really want to do.