DOJ honor/big fed honors qualifications Forum

[law1Lneedsjob]

I read that DOJ honors interviews went out last week for the 24 cycle… hoping to apply next year but honestly have no idea what sort of qualifications they look for? Anyone have stats or data points they could contribute? Law school Gpa? Other things they look for?

Have no idea what my chances are going to be next year. I have a 3.7ish gpa from a t14. In a magistrate clerkship in a random district right now (took this for personal/family reasons) but then clerking for a district judge next year in a competitive district.
I know it’s a long shot no matter what but like how seriously do I need to be looking at other options…?

[crazywafflez]

You've got a good chance. It's never a for sure thing, but clerkships plus good grades = a good head start.

They look for good to great grades, sounds like you've got them.

[Anonymous User]

Your qualifications are perfectly good, but there just aren’t very many openings, so you can’t rely on getting something. You very well might, but statistically, chances are good you will need to look seriously at other options.

The plus side to this is that you’ll apply next late summer/fall and find out probably around Thanksgiving through maybe January whether you get something or not (and for most people it’s by Thanksgiving), so that leaves you time to look at those other options before your clerkship ends.

As for what qualifications they look for: overall, it’s going to be academic success and a compelling argument for why BigFed. Probably one of the things applicants tend not to get is that DOJ is huge and each component does its own hiring. You’ll pick 3 components to apply to (and can also ask to be considered by components that are “informally” participating, who may or may not hire, and there’s no limit on how many of those you can be considered for). So you’re not applying to “DOJ” writ large, you’re applying to (say) BOP, and/or some USAOs, and/or or the environmental and natural resources division, and/or the criminal division, etc.

So the best thing you can do is be able to tell a compelling story about why you want to contribute to the specific mission of the specific component. Obviously the mission of BOP is different from the mission of the civil rights division. It’s a little awkward to do this in the single application, but it can be done.

To the extent you have some kind of government service, that definitely helps. If you followed the bog standard T14 route by doing (whatever) 1L year and biglaw 2L year, talk up your experience clerking. These are primarily litigating positions (though not all), so talk about your interest in litigation and how your experience has prepared you for that role.

Beyond that, anything that maps onto their particular bailiwick is helpful. A while back when I was applying and looking for information, people who got the civil rights division were largely double-clerks from the T14 with exclusively public interest resumes (not DOJ, but the Dept of Labor people tended to have exclusively public interest resumes as well). The civil division seems to be happy to hire people with more classic biglaw experience, which is of course more transferable. The criminal division, USAOs, and probably DEA (if they’re hiring) will really like to see criminal law internships during school. EOIR likes to see immigration experience. And so on.

Even if you don’t have a lot of direct experience, being able to talk about why you want to work for the feds, and show how the experience you have can transfer to whoever you’re applying to, can take you a long way.

The feds are actually not super snobby about schools; the honors program page usually links to a list of schools they hired from previously, which includes a lot of T1 schools (though the list may also include the SLIP hires, who aren’t permanent). They will often hire people with great grades from strong but not spectacular schools. But don’t worry, they do like the T14; but I think academic excellence can carry someone a long way.

I guess the other thing is to make sure you have good references lined up because if they consider hiring you, they will call your references. But given your clerkships you’re probably good.

Again, if you can do a good job selling your interest and experience/potential, you sound like a perfectly good candidate. It’s just not something you can rely on in the same way you can rely on getting biglaw out of OCI, because the numbers don’t work out that way.

[Anonymous User]

Hey OP, I'm in a fed honors program right now. I graduated top 1/3rd from a T30 (nothing to balk at, I know). You're probably fine as far as pedigree/cock-measuring goes, but as the above poster said, I think fit is a big part of it. Make sure you've got that down

[Anonymous User]

Past DOJ honors hire for a litigating division. I went to a T2 school, was order of the coif, and clerked for a federal (district court) judge. I was missing some of the typical government service experience and I helped overcome that by focusing in my essays on the two areas of DOJ I wanted to join the most.

I think with DOJ if you don’t have an experience they may expect you to have you have to make up for it in other areas if that makes sense. I worked in BL after 2L and think without my clerkship I wouldn’t have been competitive. However, if I focused on the specific area of law I now practice while I was in school, I think the clerkship wouldn’t have been necessary. It’s all a crapshoot but I truly think the most important part about applying is your essays and how you present in an interview.

[Anonymous User]

Dumb question: if you get a lot of interviews for DOJ Honors, are your odds pretty good for landing something? Or should you be seriously looking at backups?

[Anonymous User]

Dumb question: if you get a lot of interviews for DOJ Honors, are your odds pretty good for landing something? Or should you be seriously looking at backups?

There isn’t really any great way to answer this. Your odds are probably good, but nothing is guaranteed.

But also, I don’t quite get the point of the question. To be eligible for an honors gig, you’re either still a student, clerking, or in some other eligibility-preserving activity, which means that you’re almost certainly occupied through the end of next summer. You’ll find out whether you get an honors gig by/around Thanksgiving. That gives you plenty of time to find something else if none of the honors gigs pan out.

So as a general rule, yes, until you have an offer (from any job you’ve applied to, not just honors), you always need to be seriously looking at backups. You can’t take any job for granted and until you have a job in hand, you need to keep looking.

But I’m also not sure you need to look seriously for *the next 6-8 weeks,* especially when you can’t start work until next fall sometime. Almost no one apart from the feds is going to be hiring for the next fall in the next 6-8 weeks.

[Anonymous User]

Dumb question: if you get a lot of interviews for DOJ Honors, are your odds pretty good for landing something? Or should you be seriously looking at backups?

I can’t speak to other divisions or branches but mine interviews 8 people for every 1 spot + veterans. So yes you should seriously be looking at back ups, even if you have a lot of interviews.