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SAO. Get the litigation experience. Tons of people jump to go civil after a few years at the state.
What are your goals?
A lot of people are miserable at CSK. Think about what you want to be litigating, and what kind of hours you want to be working. Neither is a golden ticket to whatever exit option you end up pursuing, so you may as well be happy in the meantime.
CSK is highly dependent on the office. Smaller offices tending to be a tad more laid back and better WLB. However, I have heard a lot that once you get into insurance defense it’s REALLY hard to get out into something else.
EVERYONE I know who ever worked for CSK hated it. SAO all the way
What CSK office?
I only say CSK if you want to stay in insurance defense. If you don’t want to be in insurance defense literally do anything else. I’m at a “big-law” firm and we take SAO alumni but have not taken CSK alumni.
I’ve heard a lot of SAO/PD offices have a specific year requirement but don’t really care so long as you’ve put in a decent amount of time (depending on the office). But I always say SAO is great experience as someone who did a CLI and worked there full time post grad and moved to civil lit after 2 years. Feel free to PM me any questions
SAO. Don't stay too long. If money isn't an issue then do SAO and learn how to navigate a case. I don't recommend insurance defense as a career path. Easy to get into, miserable, and hard to break out from.
Left a great firm after a year and took a huge pay cut to be an ASA and I don’t regret it. ASA will be a lot more fulfilling and educational.
Neither option is great. Unless you have good/great connections and good resume, grades, etc., it will be very difficult to transition to anything that’s not PI or ID from either of those.
There is an actual 3 year commitment to being an ASA? How is that enforced?
I just begrudgingly took an ASA position. There is no enforcement, just don't expect a good reference. It's purely reputational.
both me and a buddy were at CSK for a year or two and now are both with a great small Commerical lit firm. They liked the lit experience whereas criminal law might not have been as useful. But state will give you trial experience, CSK will not. CSK will give you depo and mediation experience. I agree with "student 1", neither will give you a golden ticket to anywhere.
But also, the 3 year requirement is sort of ridiculous, you're don't owe anybody anything, leave after a year if you're unhappy. Keep in mind though, Orlando and ft. Lauderdale CSK supposedly are trash.
Orlando office isn’t trash. They have new management as well. IRS actually a great place to work and you get trial experience.