The Department of Justice is absolutely bleeding qualified attorneys. What was once one of the most prestigious jobs in government lawyering has, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, taken hit after hit.
And honestly? That’s what happens when you rebrand the Justice Department as the president’s personal law firm.
Career prosecutors have been asked to drop corruption cases as part of political bargains, sign off on dubiously motivated prosecutions of Donald Trump’s enemies, or otherwise help run a machine that increasingly treats court orders and the Constitution as optional suggestions. Turns out a lot of seasoned attorneys would rather… not.
Which leaves DOJ with a bit of a staffing problem.
So how exactly does the department plan to refill the ranks needed to keep Trump’s far-right agenda humming along?
They’ve tried a few things already. Like stopping the gap with military lawyers, though that may well violate the law and hasn’t been wildly successful in stanching the pain. They organized emergency jump teams to reshuffle the workload, and even took to Twitter (X, whatevs) to get more true true-believers to sign up.
But apparently those measures weren’t quite enough.
According to reporting from Bloomberg Law, DOJ has now decided the real barrier to hiring more prosecutors is… the requirement that prosecutors have any legal experience at all.
Once upon a time, the Justice Department required prosecutors have some experience as a real life lawyer before they hired them (the nationwide minimum was one year, but some offices implemented a three-year requirement). Now, that’s gone.
In a March 13 message with the subject line, “Suspension of Attorney One Year Experience Requirement,” DOJ headquarters informed US Attorneys’ offices that the department’s lawyer recruitment office now permits them to exclude the one-year minimum when advertising vacancies. The memo reviewed by Bloomberg Law goes on to state, “This suspension is in effect until February 28, 2027, and was implemented due to an exigent hiring need for attorneys across the Department.”
Several offices — including those in Minnesota, South Florida, Alaska, Louisiana, and Montana — have already ditched the experience requirement.
A DOJ spokesperson tried to spin the move as empowerment.
“Under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Blanche, this Department of Justice is proud to empower young and passionate prosecutors and offer attorneys at every level the opportunity to invest their talents into keeping their communities safe, including from the predators the previous administration welcomed with open arms,” said a DOJ spokesperson.
Sure, that’s *a* take. But… it’s also much easier to indoctrinate brand-new lawyers who haven’t yet developed the professional confidence (or career mobility) to push back when the boss asks them to do something that might make the ethics professors back at law school wince.
After all, experienced attorneys with options tend to recognize when an institution is in freefall.
Earlier: ‘Emergency Jump Teams’ Are DOJ’s New Plan To Paper Over Its Self-Inflicted Crisis
DOJ Begging For AUSAs On Twitter Like They’re Putting Together A Kickball League
DOJ Has Lost So Many Lawyers It Might Not Have Enough Left To Help Trump Destroy America
Attorneys Are Fleeing From The Solicitor General’s Office
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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