<p>I once heard that public defender jobs are the least coveted, whereas entry-level prosecutor jobs in the local DA's are always wanted by recent LS grads.</p>
<p>I live in a metropolitan city in CA (1,000,000+) and was wondering how difficult it may be to obtain one of these jobs?</p>
<p>I also once read that most jobs went solely to top law school grads, which I thought absurd.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>It depends on which locality you are talking about. Serving as a prosecutor is the best way to polish your litigation skills. Developing litigation skills can be the most important experience of a lawyer's career.</p>
<p>Being a prosecutor will help with criminal litigation jobs - and some white collar defense jobs, but if your long term goal is to do civil litigation, the experience loses its relevance since the vast majority of civil litigation matters never go to trial.</p>
<p>The fact that most civil litigation matters never go to trial is irrelevant to the value of working as a criminal proscutor to gain litigation experience.
First of all, most criminal matters never go to trial, either. They end in plea bargains.
Second, most of the time spent in litigation is in preparing the case for trial; learning how to develop the witnesses and information needed, how to plan the trial strategy as well as negotiation strategy, based on the relative strengths of the cases, and in carrying out numerous pre-trial matters such as motions, hearings and associated briefs.
Litigation departments of law firms like to hire criminal prosecutors with a few years of experience, or more, for civil litigation positions. That is because while in a law firm it will be at least several years before a new attorney will have the chance to get even minor trial experience, in a prosecutor's office that new attorney will have actual trial experience almost from the very beginning.</p>
<p>I can only speak to what my clients want, and my clients are large firms with civil or white collar litigation practices. They typically have no interest in attorneys with criminal litigation experience, unless it is with DOJ. Trial preparation for a typical criminal matter is vastly different from trial preparation in a large civil trial and my clients do not consider those skills particularly transferrable. They just don't care about the type of trial experience a prosecutor has. In fact, it may even be considered a detriment. The exception would be an attorney with top credentials - top 10 law school, great grades, law review, etc. - who decided to take a detour as a prosecutor. Top credentials always open doors at large firms. I'm not saying their attitude is correct, but that is the attitude of the large, prominent firms in many urban areas.</p>
<p>If I do choose to become a prosecutor (Assistant Deputy District Attorney), I don't plan on moving up anywhere except the salary schedule. ;) As soon as you become an ADDA III, you are at the highest position possible for practicing trial attorneys. You can go up to ADDA IV or V, but these don't ever go to trial, but rather oversee.</p>
<p>And while it is true that most cases don't go to trial (in my county 90-95% don't), you can't help but remember that there are hundreds and hundreds of crimes committed.</p>
<p>I believe the lowest number of cases tried per year by an ADDA in my county was said too be 5, or every couple of weeks. That's pretty good for me, seeing as most attorneys never step into a courtroom.</p>
<p>But are these jobs really coveted?</p>
<p>I see what you mean by coveted now - I was thinking in terms of coveted by other employers as a stepping stone. That is how my job trains me to think - sorry. I think it depends on your location as to how coveted they are and I would imagine that CA may be a very competitive area. You may well need top grades and you can choose law school classes that evidence your commitment. There are also som law reviews that relate to criminal law that you could try for.</p>
<p>Cartera45,</p>
<p>You work for a legal placement firm, I presume?</p>
<p>Greybeard, I am a legal recruiter. I was a litigator with a large firm many years ago, but have been a headhunter for over 20 yrs. I am mainly on the board to research schools for my daughter, but I can't help reading the law school board while I'm here.</p>
<p>If you're in law school there, I'd suggest an internship in the DA's office as a foot in the door, if you don't think you can get there on grades/school name alone.</p>
<p>In my jurisdiction competition is not stiff for DA trial positions. They are really looking for "go-getter" types who want to be in court all the time and academics aren't as important. If you aren't wired that way, they won't take you. The big city prosecutors and Feds will often start in the rural areas and then move up.</p>
<p>If you begin your career as a public defender you would be in an actual court room in the course of a trial a lot sooner than if you go for a job at the D.A.</p>