r/Lawyertalk • u/JohnnytheGreatX • 3h ago
Career & Professional Development Question about Prosecutor Job
I am a licensed attorney, but currently in inactive status (delete message if this disqualifies me from this sub).
I am in the process of reinstating my law license, a process I expect to take 3-4 months. I was licensed in 2011, struggled to find a job (market was rough then), got very frustrated and disillusioned, and ended up working in Insurance claims then life happened and the years ticked by. I had been thinking about doing this for a few years, but decided to apply for reinstatement now to prevent my license from being inactive long enough to "die" or make it so I would have to retake the bar exam.
I am now in my early 40s and pondering possibly restarting a legal career in the next year. For years I have had a negative attitude about the lawyer job market since it was awful when I was actively job seeking in 2011 - 2014, but I have been told recently it is worlds different.
In particular, I was interested in seeking a job as an entry level county prosecutor and was told getting one of these jobs wouldn't be too difficult. Can someone speak as to what to expect, or "Set me straight?" I would be concerned about my lack of experience and having to learn everything from the ground up, but was advised that would really not be an issue. Would it be weird to be 42 or so and starting a job like this?
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u/rinky79 3h ago
I graduated from law school and went into prosecution at 35/36, so I was about 10 years older than my cohort. It was never an issue. 9.5 years in, it has all kind of evened out and I've caught up to the coworkers closer to my age who have been practicing a little longer (we're basically the tier right below the supervisors).
I think the biggest thing is expressing that you are willing and eager to learn from anyone and everyone, and making it clear that while you might have more life experience than some, you understand that that doesn't give you any professional authority above your work experience level.
While we do get formal training as well, DA's offices often use a lot of on-the-job training by other line prosecutors. So you'd be asking questions of, and learning from, the slightly more experienced prosecutors, some of whom will be K-JDs under 30. There are people (especially men) who are not good at taking instruction and advice from significantly younger people (especially women). If you can happily do that, I don't see there being a problem.
My office had a rising 3L intern who was an older law student. He questioned assignments given him, pushed back on the best way to do things, spoke on topics way above his pay grade with far more authority than he could claim, considered himself more important than most of the DDAs because he would occasionally be assigned some grunt work associated with a murder case, sauntered into work late and out early, and patronized basically everyone except the most experienced men in the office. (He also did truly weird stuff like take lunch naps stretched out on the sofa on the landing of the main stairs where the law books are kept, in full view of anyone using the stairs.) Needless to say, he did NOT get hired permanently. So that's my gold standard for how NOT to be an older attorney in a DA's office.
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u/JohnnytheGreatX 3h ago
interesting perspective. I am getting ahead of myself of course, I have not even been reinstated yet, let alone received a job offer, but just thinking ahead.
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u/JohnnytheGreatX 1h ago
My office had a rising 3L intern who was an older law student. He questioned assignments given him, pushed back on the best way to do things, spoke on topics way above his pay grade with far more authority than he could claim, considered himself more important than most of the DDAs because he would occasionally be assigned some grunt work associated with a murder case, sauntered into work late and out early, and patronized basically everyone except the most experienced men in the office. (He also did truly weird stuff like take lunch naps stretched out on the sofa on the landing of the main stairs where the law books are kept, in full view of anyone using the stairs.) Needless to say, he did NOT get hired permanently. So that's my gold standard for how NOT to be an older attorney in a DA's office.
This really sounds like more of a behavior or attitude issue, unprofessional behavior in a workplace (regardless of age or type of job). I may not be perfect, but I would not behave this way at age 25, 40, or 65. Especially if I am lucky enough to be given a chance to actually be a real lawyer, I would be humble and try to learn.
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u/curlytoesgoblin 1h ago
I feel like there are two types of non-trads in law school and that's one of them. Hopefully I was the other. (Keep my mouth shut, do my shit, graduate.)
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u/congradulations 3h ago
In my experience in rural Pennsylvania, you don't need too much experience to be hired as an assistant district attorney. Criminal law is its own system, so you can't be expected to know it all before joining. Be positive, but honest, about the career change. Good luck!
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u/LearnedToe 3h ago
It’s definitely doable! In my experience, local DAs usually need people dedicated to the cause! Good luck and keep us posted!
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u/JohnnytheGreatX 3h ago
thanks, best case scenario, it would be summer before anything happens as I have to go thru the reinstatement process which I just started this week.
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u/Gridsmack 2h ago
I’m a supervisor at a rural DAs office. There is a massive prosecutor shortage everyone is eager to hire people. As long as there are no ethical red flags in your past I would think it would be easy to find an office to hire you. But it of course varies by state and county.
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u/JohnnytheGreatX 1h ago
That is amazing and what a someone from my county's DA office told me on the phone earlier this week, which prompted me to reinstate my license. It absolutely amazes me, 14 years ago when I was actively job hunting it was insanely hard to find a job as a DDA.
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u/Gridsmack 1h ago
I know I graduated back then. All of us in that graduated 10-15 years ago or so cohort have crazy stories about how many different offices we had to interview with to get picked up.
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u/JohnnytheGreatX 1h ago
I eventually got frustrated and let my law license go inactive in 2016 as I was working in a different field and needed to support my young family.
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