In-House to DOJ Attorney Advisor Forum

[Anonymous User]

I lucked into an in-house role right out of law school with a major financial institution (think Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley) but I would love to eventually work as an attorney advisor to one of the federal agencies under the DOJ. My current work is obviously not relevant at all so for this to succeed I’m pretty much just counting on the prestige of my current employer and the fact I was picked up right out of law school to get me in the door. Is this a realistic hope or do these jobs all get picked up by former AUSAs and Big Law folks?

[nixy]

The difficulty (and desirability) of getting an attorney advisor position varies a lot based on the agency. There are plenty of these positions that absolutely don’t require being an AUSA/biglaw. What agencies are you talking about?

[Anonymous User]

I was really just looking at some of the major DOJ agencies like FBI and DEA.

[TheProsecutor]

Those don't strike me as necessarily needing Biglaw/AUSA. In fact I imagine many of the attorney advisors there are looking to become AUSAs. Anyways, I would do try to do some internal investigations, regulatory work, or policies/procedures (corporate governance) work at your current gig and then apply to AA positions if that's what you really want to do next.