Post
by Anonymous User » Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:45 am
New-ish lawyer here. I am an Assistant District Attorney in a >1 million population and growing county in the South. Prior to getting hired, I was an intern in the same office, as well as at another office where my law school was. I went to a school in the 50-100 ranking and was slightly below median at graduation. I was hired conditionally upon passing the bar. I would add that my job hunt was not terribly daunting, and I had one offer before passing the bar. YMMV.
I prosecute all misdemeanors aside from family violence or cases where the defendant has mental health issues OR is a Veteran suffering from PTSD (each of those have dedicated courts).
I would say my practice involves 40% DWI/DUI, 15% gun related offenses, 15% drug offenses (pills, marijuana), 15% theft offenses, and 15% made up of such things as hunting violations, prostitution, assaults, driving under a suspended license, etc.
I typically work 45-55 hours per week. My pay is $55,000-60,000 with good benefits. I only work from home on weekends when I've got a trial or heavily contested motion coming up. My job involves being in two places; Court and my office. I am assigned to a specific criminal court with two other ADAs. We share all cases equally, until one is "set" for trial OR someone wants to take the case and see it through a disposition due to a victim issues, offense issue, or workload. The three ADAs in my court probably take 6 cases to trial each month. I participate in about 3-4 trials each month; first-chairing 1-2. I also argue at least one motion to suppress and one or two bond forfeitures each week.
I am in Court three or four days a week. Aside from trials I spend most of my in-court time negotiating with defense attorneys. Our office has an "open file" policy, so by the time the defense attorney comes to court, they have usually received all discovery and are simply trying to get the best outcome for their client OR getting ready to set the case for motion or trial.
Some of my other duties involve bond forfeitures, probation revocations, and dealing with pro se individuals. I am lucky to work in a county with pretty good investigators, probation officers, and court staff. Therefore, outside of trials, my in-court job is mainly brief discussions and paperwork.
When I am not in court I am building up cases that are set for trial. In order to announce ready in a case, I have to watch all videos, file necessary motions, and contact all witnesses. I spend a lot of time dealing with police officers' schedules, that is my biggest complaint.
I don't have a "typical day" but here is the closest I can give you:
7:30: arrive, check VM and e-mail, send replies
8:30-12:00: court, motion hearing, docket call, dispose (plea) cases, jailchain (in-custody defendants) coming in throughout.
12:00-1:00: working lunch at desk, watch videos of stops, arrests, surveillance cameras etc, make written notes, read officer narratives.
1:00-4:00 work on witness contacts, discovery requests, and most importantly the next case set for trial, review cases and make recommendations of either straight jail time, probation, or alternative sentencing.
4:00-5:00 see above, and also talking with other ADAs about upcoming cases for trial
5:00-6:00 at some point, leave work and go home.
In my opinion the pros are: steady pay and hours, trial experience, ability to resolve cases quicker than in the civil practice, and of course to see justice done WHILE being as reasonable as possible.
and the cons are: scheduling and always thinking about trial two-three weeks ahead, working with witness (officer) schedules, pay is good, but on the lower end compared to other practices, and finally, dealing with some pro se defendants that want legal advice even though they can easily get appointed counsel.