District Attorney Offices 2017 Forum

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:50 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know if KCDA/Brooklyn gives a bump after bar admission? Or are we stuck at $60k?
think stuck at 60, i was looking at salaries online and it seems that doesn't move up much either until 5-7+ years

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 28, 2017 12:57 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know if KCDA/Brooklyn gives a bump after bar admission? Or are we stuck at $60k?
think stuck at 60, i was looking at salaries online and it seems that doesn't move up much either until 5-7+ years
sounds about right. Plus it is super hard to move up. You either follow your heart or you play politics. I hate it!!

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 28, 2017 1:00 pm

Anyone have any updates from Queens DA or Staten Island DA? (offers, rejections)

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 28, 2017 9:02 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know if KCDA/Brooklyn gives a bump after bar admission? Or are we stuck at $60k?
think stuck at 60, i was looking at salaries online and it seems that doesn't move up much either until 5-7+ years
sounds about right. Plus it is super hard to move up. You either follow your heart or you play politics. I hate it!!
Any way to elaborate? Or any advice for a new ADA just looking to do good work and earn a decent living?

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Apr 29, 2017 12:00 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know if KCDA/Brooklyn gives a bump after bar admission? Or are we stuck at $60k?
think stuck at 60, i was looking at salaries online and it seems that doesn't move up much either until 5-7+ years
sounds about right. Plus it is super hard to move up. You either follow your heart or you play politics. I hate it!!
Any way to elaborate? Or any advice for a new ADA just looking to do good work and earn a decent living?
Have an exit plan and stick to it! Don't put too much stock on the "good work." It is a job. Sometimes an opportunity to do something good will arise, and you have to be ready to recognize and take it--even if it is not the popular choice.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:51 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know if KCDA/Brooklyn gives a bump after bar admission? Or are we stuck at $60k?
think stuck at 60, i was looking at salaries online and it seems that doesn't move up much either until 5-7+ years
How is KCDA stuck at 60 with Bronx going up as high as 63? Any hope it'll go up with the new DA?

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:30 am

*totally random question for those at the BX DA,

do ADAs usually come to the the office in work attire? or do people usually change at the office? i interned at DANY over this past summer and every person basically changed in a shared locker room.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 9:49 am

Anonymous User wrote:*totally random question for those at the BX DA,

do ADAs usually come to the the office in work attire? or do people usually change at the office? i interned at DANY over this past summer and every person basically changed in a shared locker room.
Most people change in their office. Be warned, starting out you will usually have to share an office with a colleague. Factor that into your decision making when choosing an office mate. :D

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 10:27 am

Did anyone get that email from Queens DA about an update regarding the spots they have left? The wait is killing me....
Has anyone heard from Staten Island DA? I saw that they had an opening.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 10:50 am

Can someone that works at KCDA or knows it well speak to some of the practical/lifestyle parts of the job, i've realized that i know almost nothing lol...for example do you get an office? shared with how many people? badge? work phone/computer? how many night shifts a month? anything interesting about training? how long on ECAB? (i've heard that's all you do first year), is there a gym in the building or some reimbursement? and anything else along similar lines that might be relevant

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 11:05 am

Anonymous User wrote:Did anyone get that email from Queens DA about an update regarding the spots they have left? The wait is killing me....
Has anyone heard from Staten Island DA? I saw that they had an opening.

YUP and same. I wonder how many of us are out there for the spots. The email was nice, but also no timeline is annoying.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 12:27 pm

Does anyone have any idea when we get get any sort of information from Bronx DA particularly regarding benefits (health insurance, vacation/sick/holiday days, parental leave, retirement plans, literally anything else)?

Got a packet from HR in the mail the other day and thought/hoped it would contain some sort of information but was just a bunch of paperwork to fill out.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 6:11 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone have any idea when we get get any sort of information from Bronx DA particularly regarding benefits (health insurance, vacation/sick/holiday days, parental leave, retirement plans, literally anything else)?

Got a packet from HR in the mail the other day and thought/hoped it would contain some sort of information but was just a bunch of paperwork to fill out.
About a week before official start date they'll invite you `all in to give you all the hr info including benefits, leave, pension options and the spectrum of insurance offerings.

Really just focus on bar between now and then is the all i can say. The waiting is brutal, i know, i had ~8.5 months of it between offer and start date.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 02, 2017 6:15 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:*totally random question for those at the BX DA,

do ADAs usually come to the the office in work attire? or do people usually change at the office? i interned at DANY over this past summer and every person basically changed in a shared locker room.
Most people change in their office. Be warned, starting out you will usually have to share an office with a colleague. Factor that into your decision making when choosing an office mate. :D

SO, if i can inquire further, how are the first year ADAs office arrangements? Are there just like 5 desks in one big office space? And you said we can pick our office mates??

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Wed May 03, 2017 12:42 pm

Does anyone out there anywhere have any info. on DANY? Is the class full? What does it mean if you haven't been denied yet? Is there still a chance of hope or they're just keeping you alive for the sake of it? Desperation starting to set in......

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 11:54 am

has anyone received an offer from queens in the last two weeks... anyone know any details about what is going on there..

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 12:02 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:*totally random question for those at the BX DA,

do ADAs usually come to the the office in work attire? or do people usually change at the office? i interned at DANY over this past summer and every person basically changed in a shared locker room.
Most people change in their office. Be warned, starting out you will usually have to share an office with a colleague. Factor that into your decision making when choosing an office mate. :D

SO, if i can inquire further, how are the first year ADAs office arrangements? Are there just like 5 desks in one big office space? And you said we can pick our office mates??
Usually when you are new you are relegated to share an office with a colleague within your class. You would inform your bureau chief (you will know who your bureau chief is after they assign you bureaus after the initial 2 week orientation) that you and your colleague want to share offices. However due to the large number of people coming into the office, I have seen offices where 4-6 people (with 4-6 desks) have shared a large room, or even be put in cubicles, but it varies upon bureau and spacing.

For the first month and a half, expect to be dressed before you leave. After you get your office assigned (which may take time as they may have to move around ppl) you can assess how you want to proceed.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 12:17 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone have any idea when we get get any sort of information from Bronx DA particularly regarding benefits (health insurance, vacation/sick/holiday days, parental leave, retirement plans, literally anything else)?

Got a packet from HR in the mail the other day and thought/hoped it would contain some sort of information but was just a bunch of paperwork to fill out.
Everyone usually gets the city Blue Cross city plan because it costs $0, unless you get the prescription rider. If you have a family you may want to choose another plan.

Vacation I believe is 15 days the first year, 20 the second, and 25 for the rest of your career.
The sick leave policy has changed and i am not aware of it currently. it used to be unlimited sick but now i think they have changed that policy (its stil unlimited burt scrutinized more) after a more generous maternity leave which i think now is:
0-3 years- must use vacation
3-4 years -8 weeks paid per childbirth
4 years+- 12 weeks paid per childbirth

Retirement:
There is the city 401k/457/529 and host of plans for pretax and post tax contributions with relatively low fees.

The pension nowadays is terrible now. The latest tier is 6 and contributions are prorated based upon salary, vest in 10 years, and you have to make those contributions until they retire, unlike the previous tier 4 members in which there was 4.85% contribution that decreased 1.85% after ten years, with a 5 year vesting.
Even worse is the benefit calculation in which members in tier 6 with 20 years of service would get 35% for 20 years of service and 2% each year after that. Compared to the previous tier 4 membership it was 2% for each year of service as long as you had 20.
For comparison sake, someone working 30 years under tier 4 would get 60% of FAS (final average salary) vs tier 6 who would get 55% at 30 years of FAS (which is based on high 5 not 3 like tier 4) (with an overall increased amount of contributions).
I blame boomers.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 3:36 pm

Anonymous User wrote:The pension nowadays is terrible now. The latest tier is 6 and contributions are prorated based upon salary, vest in 10 years, and you have to make those contributions until they retire, unlike the previous tier 4 members in which there was 4.85% contribution that decreased 1.85% after ten years, with a 5 year vesting.
Even worse is the benefit calculation in which members in tier 6 with 20 years of service would get 35% for 20 years of service and 2% each year after that. Compared to the previous tier 4 membership it was 2% for each year of service as long as you had 20.
For comparison sake, someone working 30 years under tier 4 would get 60% of FAS (final average salary) vs tier 6 who would get 55% at 30 years of FAS (which is based on high 5 not 3 like tier 4) (with an overall increased amount of contributions).
I blame boomers.
I'm a pension n00b, but if that's the case is there any benefit to having the pension these days instead of contributing everything to a 401k?

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 4:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:The pension nowadays is terrible now. The latest tier is 6 and contributions are prorated based upon salary, vest in 10 years, and you have to make those contributions until they retire, unlike the previous tier 4 members in which there was 4.85% contribution that decreased 1.85% after ten years, with a 5 year vesting.
Even worse is the benefit calculation in which members in tier 6 with 20 years of service would get 35% for 20 years of service and 2% each year after that. Compared to the previous tier 4 membership it was 2% for each year of service as long as you had 20.
For comparison sake, someone working 30 years under tier 4 would get 60% of FAS (final average salary) vs tier 6 who would get 55% at 30 years of FAS (which is based on high 5 not 3 like tier 4) (with an overall increased amount of contributions).
I blame boomers.
I'm a pension n00b, but if that's the case is there any benefit to having the pension these days instead of contributing everything to a 401k?
well the benefit is still that often a defined contribution plan is guaranteed money and often worth millions of dollars, even with the terrible new tier.
For example- lets say you are in tier 6 now, and have 30 years of service in the DA's office. Most DAswith 30 years service are chiefs or high level within the DA's offices with salaries ranging from 150-190k. For this examples sake, lets go with 170k FAS. With 30 years service thats 55% of 170k, which is 93,500 a year at retirement.

The value of this pension (which is not subject to NY state and city income tax) is:
93,500/.0235 (this is a 10 year govt bond yield currently)= 3,978,723.40 which means you would need that much in capital in a 401k to make 93,500 a year if your investments were soley in bonds.

However if you want to risk it in the market, you could potentially have less money in your 401k and receive the same yearly salary (with a average return of 6%)
93500/.06=1,558,333,33 - which is how much you would need in your account to receive 93500 if you 401 was in stocks and received a 6% return per year.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 6:07 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:The pension nowadays is terrible now. The latest tier is 6 and contributions are prorated based upon salary, vest in 10 years, and you have to make those contributions until they retire, unlike the previous tier 4 members in which there was 4.85% contribution that decreased 1.85% after ten years, with a 5 year vesting.
Even worse is the benefit calculation in which members in tier 6 with 20 years of service would get 35% for 20 years of service and 2% each year after that. Compared to the previous tier 4 membership it was 2% for each year of service as long as you had 20.
For comparison sake, someone working 30 years under tier 4 would get 60% of FAS (final average salary) vs tier 6 who would get 55% at 30 years of FAS (which is based on high 5 not 3 like tier 4) (with an overall increased amount of contributions).
I blame boomers.
I'm a pension n00b, but if that's the case is there any benefit to having the pension these days instead of contributing everything to a 401k?
well the benefit is still that often a defined contribution plan is guaranteed money and often worth millions of dollars, even with the terrible new tier.
For example- lets say you are in tier 6 now, and have 30 years of service in the DA's office. Most DAswith 30 years service are chiefs or high level within the DA's offices with salaries ranging from 150-190k. For this examples sake, lets go with 170k FAS. With 30 years service thats 55% of 170k, which is 93,500 a year at retirement.

The value of this pension (which is not subject to NY state and city income tax) is:
93,500/.0235 (this is a 10 year govt bond yield currently)= 3,978,723.40 which means you would need that much in capital in a 401k to make 93,500 a year if your investments were soley in bonds.

However if you want to risk it in the market, you could potentially have less money in your 401k and receive the same yearly salary (with a average return of 6%)
93500/.06=1,558,333,33 - which is how much you would need in your account to receive 93500 if you 401 was in stocks and received a 6% return per year.
Interesting, thanks.

As an estimate, how much does the average NYC ADA make after 5 years? 10 years? How long does it take to make $80k+?

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 08, 2017 7:41 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:The pension nowadays is terrible now. The latest tier is 6 and contributions are prorated based upon salary, vest in 10 years, and you have to make those contributions until they retire, unlike the previous tier 4 members in which there was 4.85% contribution that decreased 1.85% after ten years, with a 5 year vesting.
Even worse is the benefit calculation in which members in tier 6 with 20 years of service would get 35% for 20 years of service and 2% each year after that. Compared to the previous tier 4 membership it was 2% for each year of service as long as you had 20.
For comparison sake, someone working 30 years under tier 4 would get 60% of FAS (final average salary) vs tier 6 who would get 55% at 30 years of FAS (which is based on high 5 not 3 like tier 4) (with an overall increased amount of contributions).
I blame boomers.
I'm a pension n00b, but if that's the case is there any benefit to having the pension these days instead of contributing everything to a 401k?
well the benefit is still that often a defined contribution plan is guaranteed money and often worth millions of dollars, even with the terrible new tier.
For example- lets say you are in tier 6 now, and have 30 years of service in the DA's office. Most DAswith 30 years service are chiefs or high level within the DA's offices with salaries ranging from 150-190k. For this examples sake, lets go with 170k FAS. With 30 years service thats 55% of 170k, which is 93,500 a year at retirement.

The value of this pension (which is not subject to NY state and city income tax) is:
93,500/.0235 (this is a 10 year govt bond yield currently)= 3,978,723.40 which means you would need that much in capital in a 401k to make 93,500 a year if your investments were soley in bonds.

However if you want to risk it in the market, you could potentially have less money in your 401k and receive the same yearly salary (with a average return of 6%)
93500/.06=1,558,333,33 - which is how much you would need in your account to receive 93500 if you 401 was in stocks and received a 6% return per year.
Interesting, thanks.

As an estimate, how much does the average NYC ADA make after 5 years? 10 years? How long does it take to make $80k+?
Honestly it varies. for the class starting this fall, most likely they will hit 80k after 5 or 6 years. When you get to ten is even harder to predict because some may just be adas, some may be supervisors (which usually has a bump in pay)

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by encore1101 » Mon May 08, 2017 7:47 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Interesting, thanks.

As an estimate, how much does the average NYC ADA make after 5 years? 10 years? How long does it take to make $80k+?

It's hard to predict because it's dependent on the city budget. Unlike the federal system, there is no guaranteed raise after so many years. There was a time where offices were rarely giving out raises, but recently, I've had one or two 5% increases every year since I started in 2014.

It may also depend on which office. Some offices prefer not to give out individual raises (except in the case of promotions, of course), and instead raises everybody's salary by a fixed percentage. There's definitely pros/cons to an across-the-board raise versus a merit-based system though.

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous Defender » Mon May 08, 2017 10:56 pm

encore1101 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Interesting, thanks.

As an estimate, how much does the average NYC ADA make after 5 years? 10 years? How long does it take to make $80k+?

It's hard to predict because it's dependent on the city budget. Unlike the federal system, there is no guaranteed raise after so many years. There was a time where offices were rarely giving out raises, but recently, I've had one or two 5% increases every year since I started in 2014.

It may also depend on which office. Some offices prefer not to give out individual raises (except in the case of promotions, of course), and instead raises everybody's salary by a fixed percentage. There's definitely pros/cons to an across-the-board raise versus a merit-based system though.
You prosecutors are not very resourceful, are you? seethroughny!

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Re: District Attorney Offices 2017

Post by Anonymous User » Tue May 09, 2017 9:47 am

Anonymous Defender wrote:
encore1101 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Interesting, thanks.

As an estimate, how much does the average NYC ADA make after 5 years? 10 years? How long does it take to make $80k+?

It's hard to predict because it's dependent on the city budget. Unlike the federal system, there is no guaranteed raise after so many years. There was a time where offices were rarely giving out raises, but recently, I've had one or two 5% increases every year since I started in 2014.

It may also depend on which office. Some offices prefer not to give out individual raises (except in the case of promotions, of course), and instead raises everybody's salary by a fixed percentage. There's definitely pros/cons to an across-the-board raise versus a merit-based system though.
You prosecutors are not very resourceful, are you? seethroughny!
sigh no we are, its just that unless you know what specific class year someone started you wouldn't be able to gauge the 5/10 year pay mark. And for BXDA the new DA erased all the old press releases that announced the members of the new classes.

What would be interesting is to see PD salaries in NYC- where can i find those defender?

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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