Lets get serious about levels of PRESTIGE @USAOs Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know, I know, we shouldn't be worried about it, we should get externships where we want to practice, we have all heard it all.

Truth is, we DO care about prestige. It matters a lot IMO. If I were a hiring partner, I would definitely prefer to see SDNY over a flyover state's USAO.

That being said, who can provide some substantive opinions (hopefully with some evidence) that there even is a prestige difference in USAO offices?
SDNY, EDNY, NDCA, EDVA, etc.


Thoughts?

[Anonymous User]

If by “externship” you mean a school-year volunteer gig, I’m not sure how “prestigious” they are in any district. Our interns move our offices, tab exhibits, and, on a good day, get to watch part of a trial. Grades, school, and ability not to come across as a jackass in interviews determine the bulk of a biglaw hiring partner’s impression.

As for districts generally, SDNY, EDNY, and EDVA, and to a lesser extent NDIL (and to an even lesser extent NDCA) are the “prestige” districts, although, as discussed in other threads, the type of work you do matters as much as, if not more than, what district you’re in. Plenty of folks in those districts are doing guns and drugs, which make a return to private practice much less feasible than it used to be. Doing healthcare fraud in Philly or Nashville or Houston—hardly “prestigious” districts historically—may offer better exit options.

[Civilservant]

If I was a hiring partner, I would be thrilled to hear about how prestigious the mail you scanned in during a 1L externship was.

[nixy]

I know, I know, we shouldn't be worried about it, we should get externships where we want to practice, we have all heard it all.

Truth is, we DO care about prestige. It matters a lot IMO. If I were a hiring partner, I would definitely prefer to see SDNY over a flyover state's USAO.

That being said, who can provide some substantive opinions (hopefully with some evidence) that there even is a prestige difference in USAO offices?
SDNY, EDNY, NDCA, EDVA, etc.


Thoughts?

This is a terrible post.

First, not sure why you’re commenting on what you’d prefer to see as a hiring partner at the same time that you’re asking for opinions about this.

Second, prestige is completely meaningless in a vacuum, and doing an externship at a USAO says virtually nothing about you that a hiring partner won’t already be able to see from your resume (grades/school/possibly local ties). The value in an externship is in the kind of experience you can get. I have heard, for instance, that SDNY isn’t a great place to intern bc it’s so big and busy that you don’t get much of a chance to get to know the AUSAs or to work on very interesting stuff. That may not be true, but those are the kinds of things that make an internship valuable. Having SDNY or EDVA on your resume is worth less than getting a good writing sample, being able to talk in an interview about helping with trial prep, or a criminal chief in a “flyover” office willing to make calls for you.

That said, yeah, SDNY/EDNY/EDVA/NDCA are the “big” offices with a lot of sophisticated work. But that’s really not important for an internship. And even when you’re talking about a permanent gig, anon’s point about doing health care fraud in Philly, Nashville, or Houston is right on the money.

[TheProsecutor]

All the USAOs are prestigious. They all draw interest from the top talent in a particular jurisdiction, geographical area, or nationally. Some of the best ADAs, firm litigators, law professors, and nonprofit lawyers would drop everything they're doing right now to get an AUSA position anywhere. These men and women get to represent the United States, investigate the most significant crimes in their community, and prosecute those responsible for those crimes. So the job itself - regardless of jurisdiction - carries a lot of responsibility and AUSAs are well-respected.

While all USAOs are well-respected, SDNY, EDNY, and EDVA are often held up in particular esteem and their former assistants often end up in senior level positions in government or in lucrative positions in the private sector.

I don't think any of this matters for an internship or externship. To the extent you think you could get good litigation experience doing a semester at a USAO, I'd say take it, and talk about the experience in your interview with biglaw employers. I don't think the cachet of a particular USAO trickles down to the interns though.