The Peculiar Trend of "Uncompensated Special Assistant U.S. Attorney" Positions
By: Steve Grumm
One of the more interesting post-recession trends in the public interest legal arena has been the growth of full-time volunteer attorney
positions within nonprofit and government agencies. It has not been unusual, historically, that public service law offices would recruit volunteers to bolster their staffs amid swollen caseloads. But in the recession’s wake we’ve seen larger-scale efforts to recruit un- or under-employed attorneys for full-time stints ranging from 6 to 18 months. Budget cuts and caseload pressures felt by employers have given birth to creative staffing solutions, while the anemic legal job market has left thousands of recent law graduates
looking for ways to gain practice experience. Although there are certainly some upsides to this trend, some worry that these unpaid positions could become institutionalized, leaving some debt-laden, public service-minded law grads with a rocky financial path to traverse immediately out of law school.
Over the coming months I will look at the emergence of volunteer attorney positions in different types of public service law offices. I began in this month’s NALP Bulletin with a piece on the rise of the “Uncompensated Special Assistant U.S. Attorney.”
[W]ith Uncle Sam poised to squeeze his fiscal belt even more tightly, federal prosecutors across the country are looking for creative, effective, staffing solutions. The Department of Justice (DOJ) implemented a hiring freeze in January of this year. Given the current political climate, in particular the recent passage of sweeping federal deficit-reduction legislation, federal prosecutors’ budgets are likely to, at best, hold fast. According to one Assistant U.S. Attorney whose office has recruited for uncompensated Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys (SAUSA), given the circumstances it makes perfect sense for U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to mine a talented – and nearly free – source of labor.
A review last month of several “SAUSA Uncompensated” job listings on the DOJ’s Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management website was helpful in sketching out the nature of uncompensated SAUSA positions and applicant eligibility criteria…
