700 Lawyers Apply for 12 Openings at DA’s Office; Harvard Law Grad Likes the Job

The District Attorney’s office in California’s Santa Clara County is in the midst of a hiring boom, and it’s able to exercise some selectivity.

The office hired 14 lawyers in the past year, and it has 12 additional openings, the Recorder reports. Seven hundred people have applied. The openings are the result of retirements and funding for seven new positions.

Part of the allure of the job is starting pay of $92,000. Newbie prosecutors make less in the California counties of Contra Costa, Alameda and Orange.

One of the newer prosecutors is Melanie Griswold, a Harvard law grad who formerly worked as a litigation associate at King & Spalding. "I would've come to the DA's office and worked as a volunteer for free if I had to do that to get a job," she told the Recorder. "I knew it was what I wanted to do."

Meanwhile, the public defender’s office in Santa Clara County has seven new positions that attracted 400 applicants, the story says.