Font Size: 
Public-Sector Hopefuls on Edge as Demand for DA Jobs Explodes
Soon-to-be law school graduates are vying with deferred Big Law associates and others for a shrinking number of jobs
The Recorder
April 24, 2009
Colby Freeman has worked hard to get his foot in the door to work in a district attorney's office when he earns his J.D. this May. The University of San Francisco School of Law third-year has volunteered at the San Francisco DA's office for the past four years; this semester, he says, he's averaged 45 hours a week.
But in this economy, the door of opportunity is getting pretty jammed with feet.
"People who passed the bar in February and July are volunteering at the DA's office because they don't have jobs," Freeman said.
Like other soon-to-be lawyers interested in a career in the public sector, he's worried about the shrinking numbers of hires at some government law offices as well as the specter of extra competition now from would-be associates deferred by Big Law.
"That's the thing that kind of scares me," Freeman said. "I've done everything I could for the past four years to get myself into the right position so that when those positions do open up again, I'm at least considered."
The ranks of those looking to be considered for government positions have swelled: District attorneys and public defenders from Contra Costa County to Los Angeles report that the number of resumes coming in has doubled compared with last year. At the same time, their responses to the economy and their own budget pressures have varied, with some freezing salaries and hiring, others cutting pay, and still others rescinding offers to summers and soon-to-be graduates.
Most of those interviewed for this story have not yet rolled out official programs for deferred Big Law associates. Some said they were weighing the fairness to those for whom this would not just be a pit stop until the economy improves.
The plight of private-firm-bound law students, who typically set up their post-graduate jobs earlier, has been well-publicized. But the smaller slice of students who typically focus on government law offices are at least as unsure of their prospects.
Gary Greener, associate dean at Southwestern Law School, said his school has historical ties to the region's government offices -- with 12,000 alumni sitting in such jobs -- but the full impact of the economy on grads remains to be seen.
"I'm sitting on pins and needles as to what our local district attorneys and city attorneys are going to do," he recently said. "Will they hire at all?"
Freeman said he's still hopeful that he'll land a post-bar position with the San Francisco district attorney, but he's not counting on it. With $110,000 in student debt, on top of his wife's law school debt, and a 2-year-old son, he can't afford to work for free anymore. Like others, he feels forced to try other avenues. "I have some friends that are bankruptcy attorneys; I may look into that on a temporary basis," he said, adding: "I'll send my resume to every DA's office within a hundred miles of here and pray."
CUTS AND DASHED OFFERS
With a reported $178 million budget shortfall in California's Alameda County, the DA's office there is struggling to pay its new class of deputies and scaling back its hiring.
Senior Deputy DA Kevin Dunleavy said his office relies on its summer program as its main hiring vehicle; it typically fills higher positions from within the office. In a typical year, the office hosts eight to 12 summer clerks and makes offers to about six, contingent on openings. In 2008, there were 11 summer clerks. A letter went out in January, with apologies for the delay, explaining that no offers could be made, Dunleavy said. What's more, the office isn't able to pay its new deputy district attorneys the starting salary of about $75,000. Four deputies who passed the bar in November are getting a law clerk wage of roughly $21 an hour, with limited benefits.
In Contra Costa County, the DA's office expects to be shedding attorneys through the end of the year and has recently rescinded offers.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Brian Baker said that six attorneys hired on a temporary basis (salaried but without benefits) will be laid off by the end of April. Another 11 staff attorneys will be let go by the end of the year. The office will go from 90 to 73, he said, and a scaling back on misdemeanor work has begun.
Last fall, the office did on-campus interviews and made offers to three second-year students and five third-years. But they didn't last.
"We had to call them last month and tell them that we can't hire them," Baker said. "It's not easy. They're pretty disappointed. It's pretty late in the ball game for them to get anything going."
Baker said the office had also hired one more person, a May 2008 graduate from a Bay Area law school, as a law clerk. "We hired her at the beginning of March and had to let her go at the end of March," he said.
As of now, Baker has signed up for on-campus interviews this fall. "We'll decide later if we'll actually do those interviews." The office isn't offering positions to associates who'd been deferred by Big Law now, he added, and it remains to be seen whether it will in the future.
At San Mateo County's DA's office, loyalties lie first with those who've gone through the office's summer program, which typically segues students into post-bar clerkships. At the moment, however, the county has a hiring freeze for all jobs, Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt said.
"We do not promise any of these people a job," he said. "But if a job opening develops, they would be one of the first group of people that we'd look at."
Pitt says he's received an unusual number of inquiries about volunteering. A few a week come in from people who are out of a job, as well as from would-be first-years whose start dates have been deferred. "I'm not sure we're going to do that, but we're looking at that very seriously."
In San Diego County, where the DA's office had to suspend promotions and salary increases this year, 25 entry-level deputy district attorneys started in January. Next year, there will be none. "That's where we stand now," said Communications Director Paul Levikow.
Contra Costa County's public defender has also cut back on hiring, if mildly.
Traditionally, the 60-lawyer office has hired five graduate law clerks, earning about $17 per hour, said Public Defender David Coleman. This year, that's down to four because of budget constraints. While the office has not had layoffs yet, he said, the PD's office has a "large number of unfilled, unfunded positions," and people who want to be promoted but can't are absorbing the impact of budget cuts.
>RESUME STACKS GROWING
While a number of available positions have been evaporating, demand for them has exploded.
In Los Angeles County, the DA's hiring attorneys were blown away this year by the number of applications for attorney positions. Priscilla Musso, special assistant deputy district attorney, said the office received 871 applications for entry-level deputy DA posts -- compared with 528 the previous year.
All sorts of candidates are coming out of the woodwork, including those who openly say they aren't interested in being a criminal prosecutor. "They just had to apply because they had no other options," Musso said.
The huge office, with 1,038 lawyers, added 40 entry-level prosecutors this month -- half the number hired last year.
L.A. interviewed one third-year law student who is planning to take the July bar and was asked by the firm that hired her to work in public service for a year. "We believe she'll start in mid-August," Musso said.
The office is trying to work out a protocol for handling other requests by law firms to absorb deferred associates. There's a lot to consider, including the job description and supervision, Musso added.
The public defender's office in Los Angeles took on 18 paid senior law clerks this year, down from 34 in 2008, said Sanders Smith, special counsel to the public defender.
The resumes are rolling in there, too. "I probably received between 500 and 600 for 18 positions," Smith said, a "couple hundred more" than usual.
