Legal jobs -- anyone hiring seventh year associates? Looking for gov agency position

[Anonymous]

Our agency is looking for attorneys but can't hire because of sequestration, and now because no CR. As a 7th year gen lit associate, I don't know how you'd stack up with the thousands of other resumes we get from people with expertise though.

[Anonymous]

Remember to be mindful not to offend Fed lawyers. Sometimes, your greatest risk is that the reviewing or hiring attorneys will be put off by professional choices you've made that are different from theirs. Most feds I know are terrific, but you only need to piss off one and you may not get a job. Find a thread in your personal and employment histories that can outline why you are on a path to becoming a said, why it is your mission, and why you want to stay there once you arrive. Do not tell even your Fed attorney friends if you have any ambivalence about working for the government, or let on that you are pretty much looking for any job. They will not want to vouch for you or help you if they think you may bail when a better job comes along, or that you will give your future colleagues the impression you are better than they are.

[Anonymous]

Look at the CFPB. Still staffing up and doing more hiring than most agencies at the moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't waste your time. The attorneys who will screen your resume will often be the types who couldn't hack it as a second or third-year associate, so they'll look for reasons to find fault with someone who is smarter than they are and lasted until they were a senior associate.


With a general litigation background, I'd look for an in-house position in MD or VA.

First paragraph spoken like a true moron based on my 26 yrs. in fed service after private practice... most of the hiring people I dealt with and saw were easily as good as the private practice types I know and dealt with and in many cases better, as far as substantive expertise (but may have chosen to avoid the private firm b.s.). Your stereotype is easy and snarky and maybe it works somewhere, but not with the people I worked with at my agency & others.

So tell us, how many federal applications have you put in and been rejected for? You sound angry and entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't waste your time. The attorneys who will screen your resume will often be the types who couldn't hack it as a second or third-year associate, so they'll look for reasons to find fault with someone who is smarter than they are and lasted until they were a senior associate.


With a general litigation background, I'd look for an in-house position in MD or VA.

First paragraph spoken like a true moron based on my 26 yrs. in fed service after private practice... most of the hiring people I dealt with and saw were easily as good as the private practice types I know and dealt with and in many cases better, as far as substantive expertise (but may have chosen to avoid the private firm b.s.). Your stereotype is easy and snarky and maybe it works somewhere, but not with the people I worked with at my agency & others.

So tell us, how many federal applications have you put in and been rejected for? You sound angry and entitled.

and p.s., I left a partnership track situation to work in public service after practicing 7 yrs., lest you think I'm one of those failed 2nd or 3d yr. associates.

[Anonymous]

In-house lawyer here, very few general lit opportunities in-house.

As to feds, I've never gone for a position, but my prosecutor husband has. He had it the opposite of what some people are describing--being interviewed by ex-biglaw lawyers who treated him like he must be a degenerate because he never did Biglaw.

Bottom line is, a lot of interviewers suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a seventh year associate at a mid sized firm and just had my second kid. I'm not going to make partner and I need to get out. Does anyone know of any agencies hiring attorneys right now? Long shot, I know.

For me, the most desirable attorney positions were at Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Offices. Those places are teeming with law firm alums, from junior associates to partners. But your problem will be several-fold. DOJ is being inundated with hundreds of resumes from people exactly like you. Whether you admit it or not, as a seventh year associate, it will be clear that you "need to get out." The attorneys I've seen hired at DOJ are not usually of the "need to get out" variety. Those from law firms usually do a few years, pay back some loans, and then head off to the public sector. In other words, most of them have always had as a goal public service, and their background and experience speaks to that. My guess is that you won't be able to convincingly persuade any interviewer that public service has always been a goal of yours. That fact alone will ding you from making the cut.

[Anonymous]

Do you watch the news, OP? Federal jobs are not cushy or easy to get. None of us are working (or getting paid) right now. Certainly no one is hiring.

[Anonymous]

Contacts. Use all your contacts. Think of anyone you know who works in the gov and contact them.

[Anonymous]

[quote]
For me, the most desirable attorney positions were at Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Offices. Those places are teeming with law firm alums, from junior associates to partners. But your problem will be several-fold. DOJ is being inundated with hundreds of resumes from people exactly like you. Whether you admit it or not, as a seventh year associate, it will be clear that you "need to get out." The attorneys I've seen hired at DOJ are not usually of the "need to get out" variety. Those from law firms usually do a few years, pay back some loans, and then head off to the public sector. In other words, most of them have always had as a goal public service, and their background and experience speaks to that. My guess is that you won't be able to convincingly persuade any interviewer that public service has always been a goal of yours. That fact alone will ding you from making the cut.[/quote]

Most components are under a hiring freeze anyway, with very, very limited exceptions to partially fill large amounts of attrition within given offices.

[Anonymous]

agree with using your contacts

you need a believable story of why you want to move to X agency or do X work. no one is going to be impressed with you just because you are a 7th year at X firm. if you want to switch out of lit into a regulatory field, you need to be able to explain why you want to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't waste your time. The attorneys who will screen your resume will often be the types who couldn't hack it as a second or third-year associate, so they'll look for reasons to find fault with someone who is smarter than they are and lasted until they were a senior associate.


With a general litigation background, I'd look for an in-house position in MD or VA.

First paragraph spoken like a true moron based on my 26 yrs. in fed service after private practice... most of the hiring people I dealt with and saw were easily as good as the private practice types I know and dealt with and in many cases better, as far as substantive expertise (but may have chosen to avoid the private firm b.s.). Your stereotype is easy and snarky and maybe it works somewhere, but not with the people I worked with at my agency & others.

So tell us, how many federal applications have you put in and been rejected for? You sound angry and entitled.

Thanks for proving the point. It's why the OP will probably have a hard time. The government hiring attoneys don't want talent, but instead mostly younger lawyers even dumber than they are whom they can boss around while claiming they are above the "private firm b.s."

[Anonymous]

OP, my best advice is to become a SAHM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume almost all government jobs are on hold right now with the shutdown.

This.

[Anonymous]

Bad timing. I moved in house before I started having kids.