Any Federal or DC Public defenders out there?

[Anonymous]

I am a mid-level attorney doing public interest litigation and considering a move to a public defender position. Assuming I could get one and that I would enjoy the work, how are the hours and how do you manage child raising? Is the work culture family friendly? Are flexible hours and vacations a reality?

[Anonymous]

There is tremendous competition for these jobs from people who have have criminal law experience.

Since you currently do litigation, you know that you would have no control over trial schedules, court appearances, etc.

Depending where you work, your case load could be mostly negotiating pleas in drug related cases. Gets old very quickly.

Federal judges are known to schedule pre-trial conferences at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Most do not look kindly on lawyers who asked to be excused to care for a sick child or other relative.

You will need flexible childcare and backup child care.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is tremendous competition for these jobs from people who have have criminal law experience.

Since you currently do litigation, you know that you would have no control over trial schedules, court appearances, etc.

Depending where you work, your case load could be mostly negotiating pleas in drug related cases. Gets old very quickly.

Federal judges are known to schedule pre-trial conferences at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Most do not look kindly on lawyers who asked to be excused to care for a sick child or other relative.

You will need flexible childcare and backup child care.

Good luck!

THANK YOU!
I know that court schedules are highly inflexible. Since most of the work I do currently is pretrial case work up, I find that I am not actually in court very often. I have gone to trial about five times in the last two years, each time working long hours at the office and in court for a few weeks at a time. I can live with this. I am not sure how often this happens for the PD. Are you under a regimented court schedule many days a week, and do supervisors allow you to manage out of court time flexibly "as long as you get your work done?"

[Anonymous]

"Are you under a regimented court schedule many days a week, and do supervisors allow you to manage out of court time flexibly "as long as you get your work done?"


The ones in my courthouse seem to have set office hours of 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. They are the busiest workers in the building and frequently work through lunch, stay late, take lots of work home, etc. The females usually have no more than 2 kids.

Article III judges are GODS. They call all of the shots. Magistrate judges can be petty because of the court pecking order.

[Anonymous]

When I'm not in trial, my hours are reasonable as long as I'm willing to bring work home once in a while. I have a toddler and feel grateful all the time that "face time" is not an issue and that, as long as I get my pleadings in on time and show up for my hearings, I am in control of my time. Obviously when in trial all bets are off! Trials at the federal level have gotten less frequent over the years and, at least where I practice (DC federal) we don't have 8 am court hearings or conferences. The workload varies--sometimes we are all very busy and sometimes things taper off.

[Anonymous]

You probably will not get a job in the DC Public or Federal Defender's office. Thsoe jobs are extrememly hard to get, especially if you haven't had any prior criminal trial experience. It's easier to get hired in Md or VA.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend in the Federal Public Defender's office who is being furloughed right now--just another consideration for you.

[Anonymous]

I don't even think it is possible to get a federal defender job without significant experience. But the DC PD office hires regularly, I think. I am interested in how many trials a DC public defender gets, and what a typical work week schedule is when not in trial.

[Anonymous]

They don't do many trials because they plead everyone out....

[Anonymous]

The DC Public Defender's Office is the best in the country and was created by federal statute, so it's very difficult to get hired there because they get tons of applications (they've hired many former Supreme Court clerks over the year, and several former lawyers there are on faculty at Harvard and Yale, to name a few law schools). But hey, give it a try.

[Anonymous]

federal PDs are being furloughed and have a hiring freeze right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't even think it is possible to get a federal defender job without significant experience. But the DC PD office hires regularly, I think. I am interested in how many trials a DC public defender gets, and what a typical work week schedule is when not in trial.

DC PDS is very competitive, as others have noted. Also, they will not hire you without evidence of passion and zeal for the mission (i.e., pro bono work, civil rights work, etc.) The case load is heavy, and if you want to do right by your clients, you will end up working long hours.

If you are still interested, they do offer pro bono opportunities to represent folks who are getting parole revoked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a mid-level attorney doing public interest litigation and considering a move to a public defender position. Assuming I could get one and that I would enjoy the work, how are the hours and how do you manage child raising? Is the work culture family friendly? Are flexible hours and vacations a reality?

Bump. I am looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:federal PDs are being furloughed and have a hiring freeze right now.

Yes, my Federal court recently announced that no criminal proceedings will be held on Fridays.