A recent NY Times article highlights the unique dilemma District Attorneys Offices in New York are facing with the downturn in legal jobs with private firms.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has increased its intern pool as well as the Queen’s DA’s Office. Other districts, such as Manhattan and Staten Island, have kept their crop of interns the same.
What is noticeable is that the positions within the DA’s offices have generated greater interest due in part to fewer people being hired at private firms hiring and an overall slowing down of the hiring rate for graduating law students (down to 90% according to NALP). Greater interns puts a premium on office space and greater competition for meatier projects. As one student interning with the Brooklyn DA’s office noted in the article, “It’s much harder for them to find stuff for us to do.” He continued, “(d)efinitely some people feel they haven’t done anything.”