There was a time, not all that long ago, when lawyers fought to work at the Department of Justice. Lawyers would take massive pay cuts to move into a cramped federal building office so they could add a prestigious new line item to their resumes. The federal government had its pick from among the best candidates in the legal profession.
Now they’re running bad Star Wars ads and promising $25,000 bonuses just to convince halfway competent applicants to fill out an application.
Bloomberg Law News reports that the Civil Division now offers $25,000 signing bonuses for those will to “staff offices investigating youth transgender treatments and litigating the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.” And the good financial news doesn’t stop with new hires, with biweekly “retention incentive allowances” ranging from roughly $60 to $220 to keep the lawyers who haven’t yet bolted for a job that allows them to look themselves in the mirror.
Having lifted the requirement that applicants have any real experience, the Justice Department has apparently picked over the lowest-hanging fruit and decided that it can only solve its staffing issues with cold hard cash. The Bloomberg piece frames this as “an apparent first,” a polite way of describing a Department trapped in a precipitous lowering of its standards.
It’s a problem that stretches to every corner of the DOJ. The Solicitor General’s office has hemorrhaged at least half of its career attorneys. The Civil Rights Division has shed more than 60 percent of its workforce since January 2025. U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country are cracking under the strain of cleaning up after DHS and an immigration enforcement regime that treats federal court orders as mere suggestions. Career lawyers have resigned in organized waves rather than pad their portfolio for what should be the inevitable disciplinary proceedings.
Everything has its price. The DOJ is hoping “lying to courts” and “open contempt” is worth about $25K.
DOJ Offers Lawyers $25,000 Signing Bonuses as Hiring Lags [Bloomberg Law News]
Earlier: DOJ Posts Star Wars-Themed Tweet Seeking Recruits Who Misunderstand The Whole Point Of Star Wars
Pam Bondi’s DOJ Lowers Hiring Standards After Driving Away Lawyers With Actual Experience
Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump’s Lawyers
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
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