Reply to DOJ exit opportunities

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "DOJ exit opportunities"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it's a no-brainer.[/quote]

op here.  why am I putting prestigious things on my resume?  I think three decades of that is enough, and I'm ready to decide what to do with my life and close some of those doors that professors and grandparents are always telling you to keep open.  I respect that apparently some senior biglaw folks do not hold DOJ experience in the highest regard, but that seems component-specific and I would probably self-select (now and in the future) away from any place that, for whatever reason, had a lot of people that viewed DOJ trial section experience as a negative.  [/quote]
OP, if you want to do DOJ, you should do DOJ.  Just do not do DOJ because you think it will offer you the ability to eventually cash out. It may or may not, and I can tell you that as a general rule, the people who leave government and "cash out" tend to be superstars, not junior DOJ folks. A few other points:
-- Think seriously about the impact that much travel will have on your family.  I am BigLaw midlevel litigator, and do almost no travel.  The very few times I have traveled, for me, have been much worse than the average long hours required by BigLaw.  For the average high workload, I can almost always make it home by a reasonable hour, see my kids, and then log back on to work more from home.  This schedule is very very typical of BigLaw parents. On those nights where I cannot make it home before bedtime, it generally means I am working to some deadline, and with that out of the way have some leeway the very next morning, and can often take the next morning off and spend it with my children.  But routine travel is different - you are simply not there a lot of the time.  I would think carefully about whether you are ok with that - I love my job, but those few days where I miss bedtime are definitely the worst.  I cannot imagine that being routine.
-- I don't think you are quite understanding why a BigLaw firm would not jump at the chance to hire a DOJ attorney.  It is not so much that BigLaw does respect the DOJ experience, it is just that DOJ experience, no matter how great it was, may have limited applicability to what a large law firm actually does.  For instance being lead counsel on a bunch of trials is awesome, but at a large law firm, that is generally not what associates are needed to do.  Large law firms already have plenty of senior people with lots of trial experience, some of whom may have spent 20 years in government, or been judges themselves.  Playing defense can be very different than playing offense like the government generally does, particularly if your client is in fact guilty of some wrongdoing. And the goals and concerns of private parties may be very different than the goals and concerns of the government - learning to anticipate and address those concerns is not something DOJ is going to teach you. And most fundamentally, a key part of private practice is developing relationships with clients- in government you will not be doing that.  So while DOJ may provide great experience, BigLaw firms are going to be thinking of what they need associates to do, and that great experience may simply not be applicable.  My firm is looking for a lateral right now, but we are recruiting from other firms, not the government.  It is not because we don't respect government attys, but we are aware that government attys in our field do different work.[/quote]

op here -- everything you said sounds perfectly sensible and correct.  For me, the key distinction between us is where you say "I love my job."  I am quite confident I would not love being a biglaw associate.  I'm not sure I would hate it, but at best it would be a not-unbearable thing to do while paying down loans and providing for my family.  I think I would actually love the work I would be doing at DOJ, but as you point out the sacrifices I would be asking my family to make in service of my professional passions are significant and perhaps too much.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics