How does one land an entry level associate position at one of the Big 4 is you’ve only had attorney advisor roles or legal clerk roles in the fedgov? I’ve talked with a recruiter but because I am in the fedgov and have never worked in a private law firm after law school (~3 years) but also haven’t practiced/litigated yet, I am not sure how to market myself or how to find the one partner who would be willing to mentor me

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When I was at Littler we hired people from government that never did anything L&E related. It’s doable. I’m not sure about whether it is better to use a recruiter or not. Most people I worked with were associate-referrals. When I lateraled I reached out cold to the office managing shareholder bc yolo.

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thank you! this is very helpful :)

Do you work in the L&E field now, or in an L&E based agency (EEOC, NLRB, DOL, OSHA)? If so, just apply and you will get snatched up quickly.

I work in one of those agencies, and I had a coworker who started cold applying in January. She got offers from 3 of the 4 Big4 firms as well as Morgan Lewis.

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yes I work for one of those agencies, I started applying ~ 3-4 weeks ago and I feel like because I’m in DC my resume is not even being seen. I only applied to 1 of the big 4 though, because I wanted a recruiter to submit me and help me out. I applied for 5 other big general firms

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DC will be much tougher due to all the laid off federal attorneys flooding the market. I would suggest applying to some other cities, as well as reaching out to any contacts that you may have at your target firms to let them know you are interested.

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Sounds good. Thank you!

Just got into one of the firms mentioned in a comment here off a partner referral (from 8 years in fedgov right out of law school)

Don’t give up

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Which are the “big 4”?

Those four firms are by far the largest (500+ attorneys) management-side L&E boutiques. They are nationwide and handle probably the majority of L&E litigation across the country.

There are other firms with major L&E practices (Ford Harrison, Dinsmore, Baker Hostetler) and traditional BigLaw firms with large L&E practices (Morgan Lewis, Seyfarth, and Hunton) as well as regional mid-law firms that do alot of L&E work (Burr, Balch and Bimgham, and Maynard Nexsen in my region)

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