Join Me

This blog was started three and a half years ago to document my law school experience. While that ended about 9 months ago, I thought it was also appropriate to use it for my experience with the California Bar Exam, and with finding a job in the legal field. Now that I have done that, I am moving to a new blog. I'll still be talking about what's going on in my life, but focusing on my career.

Come on over to the new place and bookmark it. I moved all the old posts over already, so they are in one handy place. Let's all roll our eyes together and wander on over to The Blonde DA.

It's Official! I'm a Deputy District Attorney!

I haven't really wanted to comment much on my job hunt and interviews. Obviously, I needed to get a job and start making money, and when a person is looking in this kind of economy and options are limited, it is reasonable to expect that not every job being applied for is exactly what one would have wanted to be doing.

My ideal job would have been to become an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA). However, since the USAO only hires graduates of ABA-accredited schools, that was not going to be an option for me. The next job on my list was that of a Deputy District Attorney (DDA). Prosecuting on the state level may not be as glamorous as working in that gorgeous federal courthouse, but it is still doing the work I want to do, and I was not really looking for a "glamorous" type of job.

Since the Fresno County DA office is not currently hiring, I applied at the DA offices in 3 neighboring counties. I also applied for a position as a Child Support Attorney here. I did receive an offer for that job, contingent on a background check being successfully completed. (In all fairness, had I started this job, I know I would have done a wonderful job there, and probably found it challenging while I learned the law in that area. Ultimately however, it was not where I saw myself being, and knew I would have continued trying to find a DDA position.) Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for me, in the time that check has been ongoing, I interviewed twice with with nearest county and received an offer from them this morning! I start on Monday. :)

I don't think there is any way I would have received this offer if it had not been for a couple of things: first, taking the Criminal Trial Practice class (taught by the USAO office chief) that gave me the confidence and skills I needed, as well as the courage to pursue it, and secondly, working the internship at the USAO for the last year of law school. I truthfully told the panel during my interviews that they should hire me because I was the best bargain out there- they could hire me for the lowest salary range, yet I had more court and trial experience than anyone at my level (and probably more than a lot of others). In addition, I found out that my supervisor at the USAO gave the DA a "glowing recommendation" for me, which I'm sure also put the icing on my offer.

I'm thrilled, excited, and just ready to start working. Can not wait!

Interview #2

Today I had an interview with the second place that contacted me for one. This one was not with the actual department with the opening, but with the county's HR department, with a panel of 3 people from other counties. It was a rather short interview (though since I arrive quite early, I know mine was the same length as that of the person before me). Kind of boom, boom, boom, ok, walk her out.

I feel like I did well, but it was hard to tell much. They are going to speak with about 30 people over 2 days, rank them, and send out letters inviting the top 6 to return for interviews with the department. There are 2 openings.

Now the tricky part. Job offer #1 was made contingent on a background check. Since that contingency has not been yet removed, that offer cannot really be accepted. Until that time, it is not a sure thing, and I will continue to pursue other opportunities. However, since I know my background check will come back clean, it is really a matter of timing (and I suppose living in California, hoping the budget doesn't suddenly get yanked!). This job would have me starting 1/26 or 2/9, as the start date must be on the first day of a pay period. If I don't know by tomorrow, that would give me until 2/9 to see if I can get another offer, to have 2 to pick from.

Both jobs have attractive points. I'm clearly hoping that a certain one works out over the other, but when you aren't working, won't any do? I'm completely confident that I would do well and please my bosses at either. I'm just anxious to start doing SOMETHING!

Anyway, so my boyfriend and I are going to Las Vegas this weekend. We had talked about going to see Penn and Teller months ago, and once we found out that we both passed the Bar Exam, we booked this trip to catch their show. I haven't been in quite a while, so really looking forward to it. We have traveled to a few places in California so far (Carmel/Monterey, San Mateo (does the Bar Exam count?), San Francisco), but never out of state and not by plane yet. Of course, when you're in love, it probably really doesn't matter where you go or what you do, as long as you're doing it together. :) Yeah, yeah, I know that was corny (but it's true!).

Something else cool that we are doing is volunteering at the Fresno County Mock Trial Competition. The Fresno County Bar Association was looking for help, so we're going to be scoring attorneys for a couple of nights in the upcoming weeks for this event in which 10 local high schools are participating. We already received the packets describing the facts of the case and details about how to score the students. After law school (Moot Court and Criminal Trial Practice especially), it will be nice to be on the opposite side and be the one giving the evaluations and comments. Hopefully I can find something encouraging and helpful to say to all the participants.

Oh, and one more thing, Clint got robbed!

One Interview, One Offer

After finding out in November that I passed the California Bar Exam, I applied for 4 jobs. All 4 were with different counties, and 3 of the 4 were for positions as a deputy DA. Two I have not yet heard from either way, but the other 2 called and set up interviews. The first was this past Monday.

This first interview was for the only job that is not as a DDA. I had figured that the initial interview would be with the HR department, so I was kind of surprised when I showed up at the given address and found it was the actual department of the position. I was interviewed by a panel of 3 people: the director and deputy director of the 260 person department, and one of the 6 attorneys currently working there. I could not read them and had no idea what they thought of me or if they liked me.

Before I left, I asked what the next step would be and was again surprised by hearing that they would make a decision in 7-10 days without a second interview. I guess even though they stressed that this was a "no glamour" job, because it was for an attorney position I thought they would want to put the applicants through a little more hoop-jumping.

I received a phone call yesterday from one of the three on the interviewing panel. I thought maybe she needed to clarify something I had said during the interview. Nope. She was calling to offer me the job. It is contingent on a background check, though I'm not worried about that since I passed an extensive one for the Department of Justice prior to working at the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Now I'm not quite sure about the second job interview I have lined up. If the background check takes a while, I'll still go and see what they have to say. But if the check is completed rather quickly, it wouldn't really be appropriate to go if I would be starting a new job a couple of days later. We'll just see.

In any event, I'm thrilled to have a job lined up and to know that I'll be working soon, as an attorney. Makes it feel so much more official. :) This position will have me in court 2 full days a week, and preparing for those days the rest of the time. The department has 70,000 cases, so it sounds like exactly the crazy kind of work I prefer.

9 More Weeks

After having a house on the market for 16 months, I am happy that it is finally now in escrow. If all goes as planned, it will close October 9. This was the big event I needed to have happen before my divorce could be finalized, for tax reasons. That will now happen, as requested in my court documents, on December 31, though it could have happened today, since the original documents were served 6 months ago.

I'm going crazy with next to nothing to do, so ended up applying for a part time law clerk position with a criminal law attorney. I have an interview this afternoon for that. It would be nice to have something to do for the next few months.

Has it really been 7 weeks since I finished taking the bar exam? I guess that makes next Friday the halfway point between taking it and finding out the results. I know the waiting is supposed to be the hardest part, but the boredom, not the waiting, is what is getting me. I need to find something to keep myself busier.

Going Out on a High Note

My last final was Tuesday night in Legal Process. As I mentioned previously, the test was a Performance Exam, one of the three types of of tests given as part of the Bar Exam. You are given a task to do (some document to write) , a law "library" (various cases and laws) to use, and a fact set. You have 3 hours to read the packet, organize your thoughts, and write the item using only the provided materials.

It's not really so bad. The first few we did over the semester were more intimidating because I don't think anyone is used to sitting down in 3 hours and just spitting something like that out. You have to focus and get to the point, and not try to be fancy or cover subtle nuances.

Anyway, I felt happy with my performance on that exam and expect an excellent grade on it. Speaking of grades, the first ones were posted yesterday and the rest should trickle in over the next few weeks. Only my Evidence score has been posted so far. I thought that would be my second highest score (after Legal Process). I got an 83, which is a good score, but not as high as I thought it would be.

Now that looking for a job is one step closer, I'm being hit by negative news. The county has a hiring freeze in effect at the current time, and today's paper said that the District Attorney's office here may lose 55 prosecutors due to anticipated budget cuts this year. :( Considering that I need a minimum of one year of experience to get a job at the U.S. Attorney's Office, and where I wanted to get that was with the DA, this isn't good. Surrounding counties may not have the financial woes that are plaguing Fresno, but then I would have to deal with a commute. Not sure what I'm going to do exactly. I know going civil is an option, and I could get several interviews without much problem, but I'm not sure I want to go down that road yet. But I'm going to have to figure out something in the next 6 months.

I'm now down to my last week at the U.S. Attorney's office. It just feels weird. I don't want to leave. I LOVE working there. But I can leave knowing that I did an excellent job and received invaluable experience. It also feels good to know that they will miss me!

It's still hard to believe this is the end of the law school experience. I did not think that I would enjoy it this much, nor did I realize how much it would change my life.