US Department of Justice Lawyer Interview Questions
& Process

First up was a phone interview, pretty thorough, asking for specifics about my litigation background, like how many trials I'd handled as lead counsel and second chair. Then, for the final 3 of us, we had an in-person interview with 3 supervising attorneys, plus one joining by video. It went for about an hour, and they all hit me with similar detailed questions about my litigation past. They also threw in questions about how I'd tackle various litigation situations, tricky personnel issues, and other stuff testing my legal smarts, negotiation abilities, decision-making, how I manage my time, and delegate tasks, among other things.

Well organized structured phased interviews by both management and non-management including plenty of legal and technical scenario questions. Assessment of enforcing the law while protecting the privacy of the public. Phase one interview had perhaps 3-5 non-management staff, phase two seemed to have 5 management people, phase three had as many as 20+ people, and last interview was with main justice front office leader. Could possibly stop at section chief level but clearly what they Re doing has worked well to assemble the most highly group of qualified people in the government.

It was professional, but a little messy. We were in a conference room, but they didn't really introduce themselves. They seemed kind of cold, and different people kept popping in and out while it was happening.