Anybody ever interview with a DA office during OCI?

Having had a decent number of both DA and firm interviews during OCI, the DA interviews are much more intense and much more crim-specific.

The firm interviews were pretty pleasant and conversational; most of the questions were about my classes or my resume, and the hardest part was the "do you have any questions for me" nonsense. Firms are just making sure that you are not a total weirdo or lying about your grades.

DAs, on the other hand, are trying to determine if you'd be a good ADA, and so the interviews are nothing like firm interviews. Although of course every interview and interviewer is different, on the whole, DA interviewers are hardasses in the interviewing process. Part of this is to screen out folks who won't be able to hack it in the rough-and-tumble of the criminal courtroom; part of it is because ADAs are combative and adversarial by nature. But these are not generally fun, get-to-know-you style chats. Generally, they aren't looking for a winning, congenial personality, but for someone who doesn't back down or panic under pressure, who knows their limits, and who is familiar with the broad outlines of criminal law.

I only had one office give me a real hypothetical in the first interview (second- and third-round interviews are completely different--expect lots of hypos, be familiar with Brady disclosure, 4th, 5th, 6th Amendment law, criminal law basics, and prosecutorial ethics), but I got "why criminal law" and "why prosecution" in the first round from every single office that interviewed me, and "why this specific office" from about half. DA interviewers will generally push you pretty hard, and you need to have at least a couple of really good answers for why you want to do prosecution as opposed to criminal defense, and you need to be able to deliver and defend those answers in your sleep. They may try to put you on the spot, as well. I have gotten called out several times because my answer sounded like bullshit. At least twice, I said I wanted to serve justice, and the interviewer made me define justice and then attacked my definition. Be ready for that sort of thing.

DA offices will also push you harder if you have no criminal law experience. If this is OCI, I'm assuming you're a 3L--if you don't have DA or US Attorney or DOJ experience, you're going to need a really good explanation. If you do have criminal law experience, first round interviewers like to ask you questions about it, and can get pretty intense in the process.

You are going to have a pretty solid hometown advantage, so I would focus hard on my "why prosecution" and "why criminal law" answers for this round. I know this may sound unpleasant, but it's really not so bad once you get into the rhythm of it.

/r/LawSchool Thread