The US DOJ is hosting two informational webinars answering questions about their Attorney General’s Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP).  SLIP is the paid summer internship program, and the DOJ Honors Program is the DOJ’s entry-level attorney recruiting tool.  Participants need to RSVP by August 3, 2016 to Kim.Person@usdoj.gov.  The applications for the Honors Program and SLIP open on Sunday, July 31, 2016 and close on September 6, 2016.

You’re Invited to a Webinar Answering Questions on:
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S HONORS PROGRAM AND SUMMER LAW INTERN PROGRAM AT THE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Hosted by: Rena J. Cervoni, Deputy Director and Trisha A. Fillbach, Assistant Director Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management
During the webinars, participants will:
•Obtain a brief overview of this year’s programs;
•Receive answers to questions about the application; and
•Gain an understanding of the hiring timeline.
* Participants are encouraged to review the application prior to the webinars.

* Please RSVP to Kim.Person@usdoj.gov for one session by Wednesday, August 3, 2016. Please include your name, law school attended, and the webinar date you choose to attend. (Participation is limited to the first 100 respondents for each session.)

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 Wednesday, August 10, 2016 12:00 P.M. (Eastern Standard Time) or 3:00 P.M. (Eastern Standard Time)

Below are also the links to each program’s information page.  It includes participating offices and the number of available positions. 

HP:   www.justice.gov/legal-careers/entry-level-attorneys

SLIP:  www.justice.gov/legal-careers/summer-law-intern-program

Federal Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)

One of the biggest benefits of federal employment for recent law school graduates is student loan repayment assistance. Federal agencies are authorized to provide up to $10,000 in loan repayment assistance per year for federally-made, insured or guaranteed student loans with a total lifetime cap of $60,000 per employee. In exchange for each year that an employee accepts this benefit, she or he must commit to working for the federal government for an additional three years. If an employee accepts this benefit and leaves (separates either voluntarily or involuntarily) before this period expires, she or he must repay the full amount.

While not all agencies offer this benefit, many do. In 2014, 33 federal agencies provided more than $58.7 million in loan repayment assistance to their employees.  This represents a 6.5 percent increase in the number of agencies offering a loan repayment program from 2013, and a 10.9 percent increase in agencies’ overall financial investment in this particular incentive. However, the average student loan repayment benefit in CY 2014 was $6,937, a 4.1 percent decrease compared to CY 2013.

The five agencies that provided the most loan repayment assistance in CY 2014 were:

Most notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission used the majority of its loan repayment funds on mission critical occupations, with Attorney-Advisor being the largest category of recipients (371 attorneys received benefits in CY 14) and the JD advantage position Securities Compliance Examiner (32).  The Department of Veterans Affairs also used a large portion of funding on the JD advantage positions of Contract Specialists (116) and Human Resource Specialists (106).

Overall, departments and agencies report that the use of student loan repayment assistance as a recruitment and retention tool for highly skilled workers has been effective.  For example, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission uses its funds mainly as a retention tool, providing a majority of the benefits to mission critical occupations such as Attorney and Energy Industry Analyst.  Of special note, Housing and Urban Development provided loan repayment assistance to their Presidential Management Fellow in addition to other legally related positions.

Agencies continue to report that the primary barrier to using student loan repayments for recruitment or retention is a lack of overall funding for the program.  Other reported barriers were the corresponding three-year service agreement, the tax liability associated with the student loan repayments, and the yearly cap of $10,000 on benefits.  Some agencies reported candidates were unwilling to commit to three years of service in return for the student loan repayment benefit. Both the tax liability and the cap in relation to rising student loan debt were seen as diminishing the value of the benefit.  However, the primary impediment appears to be need — many agencies do not have hard-to-fill jobs or don’t have difficulty recruiting and retaining employees.

The following departments or agencies provided loan repayment assistance to one or more attorneys: Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Regulatory Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Government Accountability Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Postal Regulatory Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Surface Transportation Board.

The following departments or agencies provided loan repayment assistance to one or more JD advantage positions: Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, Federal Regulatory Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Postal Regulatory Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission.

Additionally, 9 agencies recently established student loan repayment assistance programs that they did not use in CY 2014.  These agencies include the Agency for International Development, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Government Printing Office, National Capital Planning Commission, Office of Government Ethics, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. AbilityOne Commission.

To learn more about the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program, visit opm.gov or contact human resources representatives at the federal agencies in which you are most interested. Click here to view the complete report from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management for calendar year 2014.

Sam Halpert, PSJD Fellow (’14-’15)

The federal government is big and does a lot of stuff. [citation needed] Folks across the political spectrum approach this fact with various feelings, but it’s true. And with great scope comes great opportunity. Almost regardless of what your interests are as a lawyer, odds are some corner of the Fed might enable you to pursue them. If you’re in the midst of your job search and you haven’t taken a look around the government yet, you probably should. You never know what you might find.

USAJobs.gov handles so many different fields, it can be hard to find relevant information.

The problem is, the federal government is big and does a lot of stuff. That means that taking a look around is far from simple. USAJobs.gov–the federal hiring portal– handles so many job notices in so many different fields, it can be hard to find relevant information. Moreover, once you find positions you want to apply to you’ll probably learn that the federal hiring process involves different conventions than most other employers.

Without help, overcoming these challenges can be slow and painful. Luckily, there are resources out there to speed things up for you:

1. USAJobs Search/Alert Walkthrough. This winter, the PSJD Resource Center added a walkthrough to help jobseekers set up their USAJobs.gov accounts to locate positions that require or prefer candidates with legal training. (Courtesy of Georgetown Law’s Office of Public Interests Career Services) It’s your best option for getting up to speed on USAJobs and finding positions you’re interested in.
2. Tips for Writing Federal Resumes. Last Friday, Lindy Kyzer of ClearanceJobs.com (and formerly of the DoD) published a new listicle of do’s and don’ts for your federal-government-specific resume. (Yes, you need a federal-government-specific resume.)

So check out these guides, and get out there! If you find anything unexpected in the federal government, feel free to share your surprise. If you come up with additional resources you’ve found helpful, let me know and I can pass them on.

Any law students out there who haven’t yet joined the American Bar Association, you’ve officially run out of excuses. ABA membership is now free for students, and here’s what a whole lot of nothing will get you, according to the ABA’s own site:

• Access to the ABA Job Board, where members’ resumes are flagged with the ABA logo.
• A chance to apply for over 20 ABA fellowships writing competitions.
• Opportunities to connect with established lawyers and learn about specialized areas of law through ABA sections, divisions and forums.
• Four digital and print issues of Student Lawyer magazine, plus a digital subscription to the monthly ABA Journal.
• Access to the Free Career Advice Series of monthly webinars on various career-related topics such as interviewing wisely, tailoring your career to fit your strengths and putting social media to work for you.
• Free monthly continuing legal education webinars, which deal with real legal issues in different practice areas.
• Access to member-only discounts on everything from Sprint cellular packages to Hertz car rentals to Brooks Brothers clothing.
• All of the other benefits of ABA membership…

More networking opportunities! Another job board! Monthly career webinars! Why are you still reading this!

Go get yourselves membered-up! at https://shop.americanbar.org/eBus/Membership/JoinABA.aspx

Sam Halpert, 2014 – 2015 PSJD Fellow

Okay, grasshoppers. Over the last month, we’ve tackled your resumes and your cover letters. We’ve mastered the art of building, contacting, and maintaining your mentor-and-peer network. We’ve also developed a strategy for talking about work at a party without putting the room to sleep. Our holiday job search training montage is almost complete! The hardest stuff–the things I’ve needed to think through with an expert like Christina–is behind us.

But we’re not done yet. Over the winter break, in addition to putting this series’ advice into practice, remember that we have a few more outstanding holiday job search tips for you to consider. The ones that are left are pretty self-explanatory. You’ll just need to get out and get them done!

1. Professionalize your online presence. Try Googling yourself. Remember, you’re not safe simply because many people share your name. Employers will have your resume, so see what comes up when you search for yourself using your name and also student groups on your resume, the name of your school, etc. Also look at your social media (employees of prospective employers may be part of your network). Clean up your image where you think you need to. (Ask a career counselor if you’re not sure what image you need to project in these semi-public spaces.)
2. Visit the courthouse. It’s a great way to expose yourself to a legal work environment, and you might even get a chance to build your network.
3. Volunteer with a legal aid office. Look through PSJD employer profiles if you’re stumped. See whether you can find someone doing work in your area who needs a hand (often organizations solicit volunteers on their websites).
4. Write an article, or research a topic. Even if you don’t find a place to publish your ideas, it’s still a great excuse to talk to lawyers who do work you’re interested in. If you have an idea related to topics we cover on PSJD (e.g. a profile piece on what your upper-class friends think they’ve learned one year out from graduation), write to PSJD–we may be interested in publishing your work here on the blog.
5. Join a bar organization. If you don’t know what practice areas you’d like to follow yet, consider asking your informational meeting network to help you decide.
6. Update your professional references. The end of the year is a great time to check back in with the people who’ve offered to be your reference in the past. Let them know what you’re up to and at least give them a general sense of where your job search is taking you now. Also, evaluate your references. Are they still relevant for the types of legal positions you’re now seeking? If not, determine who else could potentially be a reference and make that connection. (This task has gone much more smoothly for me with the skills and tools I practiced during the informational meeting portion of the series.)

One more thing: Don’t forget to take a well-earned rest! Hopefully, contemplating these tasks isn’t as daunting as it seemed when we proposed them over Thanksgiving. If you can manage a restful break while still tackling even some of the ideas on this list, you’ll be ready to impress employers in the New Year.

So good luck, and let us know how it goes! If you find anything you’ve read here particularly helpful or you run into unexpected challenges, we’d love to hear about it. Write to us at psjd@nalp.org, and you may see your triumphs or your concerns addressed in future editions of PSJDblog.

Happy holidays!
-Sam