Generally I've always had the perception that prosecutors have better career choices when it comes to judges or politics. Rarely do I hear about public defender who became a judge or public office. Although generally both probably involve some time in private practice first, but if you wanted to go from prosecutor to judge or politics right away that's a lot more feasible.

I think there's some your mileage may vary going on here. In my experience I didnt get the feeling that one is better than the other. Also if you're in Baltimore City your experience in either position will be different than outside the city. You're doing triage in the city and turnover destroys seniority so you get thrown right into it right away pretty much. Especially the prosecutors from what Ive heard.

DonkJr what you gonna do now?

Civil litigation.

If you are a prosecutor or a public defender and haven't had a trial in two years, you are just doing it wrong. I don't care how much pressure the judges are putting on you.

So i would definitely say it depends on where you are. Which I know really isn't an answer but i would basically have the exact opposite opinion of some here.

I interned at the public defenders office and I'm currently an ADA in a 700k population county and the PD is definitely the lower perceived unit of the two. Our PD's handle roughly 80% of all Felonies and 93% of all murders, so the workload isn't all that much different. I strongly feel that the pd's office struggles to get the same caliber applicants as the district attorney's office in my state/area.

I started recently so I'm still doing misd. domestic, felony domestic, strangulation, kidnapping, burg., and other general felonies.

Trial wise(which is the real reason you went in to this), I'm not sure what would get you more. My first First Chair trial was 13 days after i started and my supervisor was busy in her own trial so i was thrown to the wolves solo.

Going on what Dave D said, almost all of the judges in the state court house in my area are former prosecutors so if that is a potential goal then ada is better choice.


It is indeed a lot of your mileage may vary. I'm much happier to be in my office than the PD's here, and i consider myself a fairly defense minded person that will probably end up in private practice criminal defense.

Yeah assuming a ten minute trial in front of a judge counts, longer than a month seems ridiculous unless you're in a really rural county.

yeah, I assumed he was talking about full jury trials. If we are talking just stuff on the record like non jury trials, preliminary hearings(i generally have these at least three days a week), or other motion hearings, I cant imagine you aren't in court multiple days per week.

Since you guys are coming up with explanations (excuses), let me rephrase. If you are a prosecutor or a public defender working on adult cases , and haven't had a JURY TRIAL in two years, you are doing it wrong, regardless of which state you are in or how much pressure the judge is putting on you.

I also know some people in both offices that go long stretches without a trial. They are either not cut-out for the job at best, or are just bad lawyers. I can explain further if you guys like, but I think it should be self-explanatory. If you are going into the state attorney's office or public defender's office, you should be there to get trial experience. If you aren't, you are really just wasting your time and doing your clients a disservice if you are a PD, or your offers are too low if you are a prosecutor.

We are agreeing with you? At least I am. I go to a full jury trial roughly once a month. But I was saying if we count court appearances that are on the record it should be nearly every day in most cases.

Alright good discussion and all but let's not forget the more important bullet number 1 in all of this - PDs are the good guys!

Or you could just be working in the Bronx where in 2015 there were over 45,000 misdemeanor arraignments and 98 misdemeanor jury trials.

Ding ding ding. That's where it was. New attorney who was apparently stuck on the misdemeanor level for ~2 years due to office policy.

Have a first round interview for another borough tomorrow (DA). Pretty pumped for it.

They are. God bless them. Has to be one of the toughest jobs in law.

not sure which I would hate more, being a prosecutor or a criminal defense lawyer

both sound miserable

.

haha yeah. I have a friend who represented someone in Bx where both sides were ready for trial over 10 straight appearances and there wasn't a court room available to try the case.

NYS Office of Court Admin. being sued over this at the moment by the Bronx Defenders, so maybe some changes will be happening over next couple of years.

First couple of days working with med mal guy has been interesting, to say the least. Guy is super nice and helpful and he's an absolute workhorse. Been pulling 10-12 hr days and I'm learning tons already.

Assuming I pass the bar, he's discussing throwing me some limited tort auto accident cases come December. Like, he walks me through it and we just split the fee until I can do them on my own. It's an odd setup, as he's got probably four dozen 7 figure wins under his belt, but it's just him and his partner left at his firm, no young kids like me or anything. Can't believe noone has taken the opportunity to learn from him before.

This work beats the public defender list, that much is for sure

That's awesome x

Thanks Jack. Do you do personal injury? I get everyone confused, but I thought you posted awhile back about it?


Also, turning in my first attempt at answering some ROG's/RFP's. Probably going to be a slaughter of red pen on the paper lol

No I'm a transactional and light litigation attorney for local government. But I'm making a move to the private sector in the next couple months. Either going to get CIPP certified and build a practice as data privacy counsel or make a move into marijuana biz law here in Colorado.

Played golf with three solo/small firm PI attorneys last weekend though. Guys seem like they have it pretty well figured out. Feast or famine lifestyle especially for the solos.

Bar results in T-Minus 72 hours. I'm a bag of nerves right now, but surprisingly, far cooler than most of my classmates seem to be.

Got my first case working with PI guy. It's a small slip and fall in a department store, but it is my first one! We are projecting to settle it for around 15k, which is peanuts to this guy, but would be a nice payday for me. (CL is family friend of attorney)

Unfortunately, I'm still working on contract basis right now, so no stake in the case quite yet.

If I pass/this one goes well, were talking about cutting me in come Dec. Never thought I'd be a personal injury attorney, but crazier things have happened.

Bar results up in less than 24 hours. I'm nervous lol.

No matter what, pass or fail, it won't be the end of the world. I'll be able to pick the pieces up after a night (or two) of heavy drinking to get over the pain if the worst happens.

Send last minute rungood please

I remember the morning my bar results were due. I set an alarm to wake up before results were up so that I could immediately start drinking and have a solid buzz going by the time they were posted. (Got the day off of work in advance obviously.)

GL man.

gl man

i'm about to take the mpre next month the consensus is that you only have to study for like 2 days right

under

Two days is too much if you're talking about actual study.