{"id":146331,"date":"2026-03-18T07:05:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/18\/pam-bondis-doj-lowers-hiring-standards-after-driving-away-lawyers-with-actual-experience\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T07:05:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:05:01","slug":"pam-bondis-doj-lowers-hiring-standards-after-driving-away-lawyers-with-actual-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/18\/pam-bondis-doj-lowers-hiring-standards-after-driving-away-lawyers-with-actual-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam Bondi\u2019s DOJ Lowers Hiring Standards After Driving Away Lawyers With Actual Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department of Justice is absolutely bleeding<\/a> qualified attorneys. What was once one of the most prestigious jobs in government lawyering has, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, taken hit after hit.<\/a><\/p>\n

And honestly? That\u2019s what happens when you rebrand the Justice Department<\/a> as the president\u2019s personal law firm.<\/p>\n

Career prosecutors have been asked to drop corruption cases<\/a> as part of political bargains, sign off on dubiously motivated prosecutions<\/a> of Donald Trump\u2019s enemies, or otherwise help run a machine<\/a> that increasingly treats court orders and the Constitution as optional suggestions. Turns out a lot of seasoned attorneys would rather\u2026 not.<\/p>\n

Which leaves DOJ with a bit of a staffing problem.<\/p>\n

So how exactly does the department plan to refill the ranks needed to keep Trump\u2019s far-right agenda humming along?<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve tried a few things already. Like stopping the gap with military lawyers, though that may well violate the law<\/a> and hasn\u2019t been wildly successful<\/a> in stanching the pain. They organized emergency jump teams<\/a> to reshuffle the workload, and even took to Twitter<\/a> (X, whatevs) to get more true true-believers to sign up.<\/p>\n

But apparently those measures weren\u2019t quite enough.<\/p>\n

According to reporting from Bloomberg Law<\/a>, DOJ has now decided the real barrier to hiring more prosecutors is\u2026 the requirement that prosecutors have any legal experience at all.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, the Justice Department required prosecutors have some experience as a real life lawyer before they hired them (the nationwide minimum was one year, but some offices implemented a three-year requirement). Now, that\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

\n

In a March 13 message with the subject line, \u201cSuspension of Attorney One Year Experience Requirement,\u201d DOJ headquarters informed US Attorneys\u2019 offices that the department\u2019s lawyer recruitment office now permits them to exclude the one-year minimum when advertising vacancies. The memo reviewed by Bloomberg Law goes on to state, \u201cThis suspension is in effect until February 28, 2027, and was implemented due to an exigent hiring need for attorneys across the Department.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Several offices \u2014 including those in Minnesota, South Florida, Alaska, Louisiana, and Montana \u2014 have already ditched the experience requirement.<\/p>\n

A DOJ spokesperson tried to spin the move as empowerment.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the leadership of Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Blanche, this Department of Justice is proud to empower young and passionate prosecutors and offer attorneys at every level the opportunity to invest their talents into keeping their communities safe, including from the predators the previous administration welcomed with open arms,\u201d said a DOJ spokesperson. <\/p>\n

Sure, that\u2019s *a* take. But\u2026 it\u2019s also much easier to indoctrinate brand-new lawyers who haven\u2019t yet developed the professional confidence (or career mobility) to push back when the boss asks them to do something that might make the ethics professors back at law school wince.<\/p>\n

After all, experienced attorneys with options tend to recognize when an institution is in freefall.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> \u2018Emergency Jump Teams\u2019 Are DOJ\u2019s New Plan To Paper Over Its Self-Inflicted Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

DOJ Begging For AUSAs On Twitter Like They\u2019re Putting Together A Kickball League<\/a><\/p>\n

DOJ Has Lost So Many Lawyers It Might Not Have Enough Left To Help Trump Destroy America<\/a><\/p>\n

Attorneys Are Fleeing From The Solicitor General\u2019s Office<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Pam Bondi\u2019s DOJ Lowers Hiring Standards After Driving Away Lawyers With Actual Experience<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice is absolutely bleeding<\/a> qualified attorneys. What was once one of the most prestigious jobs in government lawyering has, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, taken hit after hit.<\/a><\/p>\n

And honestly? That\u2019s what happens when you rebrand the Justice Department<\/a> as the president\u2019s personal law firm.<\/p>\n

Career prosecutors have been asked to drop corruption cases<\/a> as part of political bargains, sign off on dubiously motivated prosecutions<\/a> of Donald Trump\u2019s enemies, or otherwise help run a machine<\/a> that increasingly treats court orders and the Constitution as optional suggestions. Turns out a lot of seasoned attorneys would rather\u2026 not.<\/p>\n

Which leaves DOJ with a bit of a staffing problem.<\/p>\n

So how exactly does the department plan to refill the ranks needed to keep Trump\u2019s far-right agenda humming along?<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve tried a few things already. Like stopping the gap with military lawyers, though that may well violate the law<\/a> and hasn\u2019t been wildly successful<\/a> in stanching the pain. They organized emergency jump teams<\/a> to reshuffle the workload, and even took to Twitter<\/a> (X, whatevs) to get more true true-believers to sign up.<\/p>\n

But apparently those measures weren\u2019t quite enough.<\/p>\n

According to reporting from Bloomberg Law<\/a>, DOJ has now decided the real barrier to hiring more prosecutors is\u2026 the requirement that prosecutors have any legal experience at all.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, the Justice Department required prosecutors have some experience as a real life lawyer before they hired them (the nationwide minimum was one year, but some offices implemented a three-year requirement). Now, that\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

\n

In a March 13 message with the subject line, \u201cSuspension of Attorney One Year Experience Requirement,\u201d DOJ headquarters informed US Attorneys\u2019 offices that the department\u2019s lawyer recruitment office now permits them to exclude the one-year minimum when advertising vacancies. The memo reviewed by Bloomberg Law goes on to state, \u201cThis suspension is in effect until February 28, 2027, and was implemented due to an exigent hiring need for attorneys across the Department.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Several offices \u2014 including those in Minnesota, South Florida, Alaska, Louisiana, and Montana \u2014 have already ditched the experience requirement.<\/p>\n

A DOJ spokesperson tried to spin the move as empowerment.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the leadership of Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Blanche, this Department of Justice is proud to empower young and passionate prosecutors and offer attorneys at every level the opportunity to invest their talents into keeping their communities safe, including from the predators the previous administration welcomed with open arms,\u201d said a DOJ spokesperson. <\/p>\n

Sure, that\u2019s *a* take. But\u2026 it\u2019s also much easier to indoctrinate brand-new lawyers who haven\u2019t yet developed the professional confidence (or career mobility) to push back when the boss asks them to do something that might make the ethics professors back at law school wince.<\/p>\n

After all, experienced attorneys with options tend to recognize when an institution is in freefall.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> \u2018Emergency Jump Teams\u2019 Are DOJ\u2019s New Plan To Paper Over Its Self-Inflicted Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

DOJ Begging For AUSAs On Twitter Like They\u2019re Putting Together A Kickball League<\/a><\/p>\n

DOJ Has Lost So Many Lawyers It Might Not Have Enough Left To Help Trump Destroy America<\/a><\/p>\n

Attorneys Are Fleeing From The Solicitor General\u2019s Office<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Pam Bondi\u2019s DOJ Lowers Hiring Standards After Driving Away Lawyers With Actual Experience<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Justice is absolutely bleeding qualified attorneys. What was once one of the most prestigious jobs in government lawyering has, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, taken hit after hit. And honestly? That\u2019s what happens when you rebrand the Justice Department as the president\u2019s personal law firm. Career prosecutors have been asked to drop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-j5KNX2.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}