Law Students

Life at the AG's office

Two things that are really different about the AG's office versus the firm:

1. Especially because I'm in a criminal division, the AG's office is an arm of law enforcement. The AAGs may not do the same job, but they see themselves as essentially on the same team as the police and work with them closely. In fact, our section of the office has about as many detectives as attorneys. The attitude at the firm is "how can we accomplish our client's goals," but the AAGs are all about helping victims and bringing wrongdoers to justice. There is a much bigger moral component. (Hey... maybe this is why they call this a "public service" job. Lightbulb!)

2. The freedom from billable hours is amazing. The days just fly by, and I realize that I'm more productive because I'm not always worried about keeping track of every minute. You get more work done when you can just work.

I don't think I would want to do criminal work for real -- although the white collar stuff, which I would never want to do at a firm, seems pretty fun from the government side -- but I would definitely consider working for the government at some point during my career.

Full post as published by Magic Cookie on September 22, 2008 (boomark / email).