Government Legal Careers Program at NALP Conference
By: Steve Grumm
Greetings from Austin. This morning I tweeted some points from a “government lawyer careers” program. (You can follow me @SteveGrumm, my colleague Kristen @KristenPavon, and our PSLawNet feed @pslawnet.) I’ll quickly summarize them here, too.
- The Texas Attorney General’s office employs 700 lawyers. Job openings occur frequently and are found at www.workintexas.com. Job seekers should be licensed to practice before applying. The AG doesn’t follow the practice of law firms which hire associates before they’ve sat for/passed the bar. You have to have a license at the outset to be considered for an AG’s office job.
- On the federal level, one half of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission’s (EEOC) workforce is now eligible to retire. So when the federal-government hiring freeze starts to thaw, there should be openings for lawyer jobs and other positions.
- All three of our panelists agreed that GPA is not the most important criterion in a candidate’s application. Experience and demonstrated commitment to public service go a long way toward overcoming a shaky GPA.