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It depends on the agency and what billets/positions they’re funded for. Generally the position is going to be budgeted as a 13, 14, or 15 spot so that’s what they’ll hire you at. Even if you meet GS-15 requirements, they can’t hire you at a GS-15 if it’s only budgeted for a GS-13.
But take what you can get, basically. It’s much easier to move up once you’re there, and it’s really difficult to get into federal work in the first place so just get started and then work on moving up. You’ll get raises either automatically based on time, or might be able to transfer into higher-graded positions more easily. Inter-agency transfer is also easier than direct hire, generally. If you’re getting into the DOJ, they will move you up fairly quickly (compared to rest of government) to compete as much as they can with private sector.
Pro
Depends on the agency, but they usually tell you which grade you’re coming in at and then you can negotiate the step.
It's for the FTC
For federal judicial clerkships, pay is determined by the scale (including any additional sums for geographic location), with a maximum cap. I can't remember the cap, but I think it was something like if you had four or five years of experience already, you couldn't keep going up the scale. But until we reached the cap, the pay raise was automatic based on years of experience, with no other requirements. Beyond clerkships, I'm not sure.
I worked in an agency - office of medicare hearings and appeals - that started attorney advisors at GS-9 regardless of how many years of experience they had. It went up to GS-12 and there was very little room for advancement after that (very few jobs). The pay at GS-11 was so low for a high cost of living area that it felt unsustainable for a single person to live on and felt like a scam to me
Yikes!