Legal Careers
Assistant United States Attorney (Criminal Division)
Sacramento, CA 95814 - United States
The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California is headquartered in Sacramento. The District includes the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada Mountains and encompasses most of the land mass of California-from the Coastal Mountain Range to the Nevada border, and from Bakersfield in the south to the Oregon border. The Fresno office serves the counties of Calaveras, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Merced, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Inyo. The Bakersfield office serves Kern County and the surrounding areas within the southern part of the Eastern District of California.
Sacramento, the state capital, is located in the heart of California. The city has been on the move since it became the capital in 1854 and is now one of the fastest growing regions in the United States. Sacramento is home to professional ballet, opera, and theatre companies, including the Sacramento Music Circus, providing a wide range of cultural activities and events. Professional sports are represented by the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, the Sacramento River Cats, a Triple-A baseball team, and the Sacramento Republic FC, a professional soccer team. Bound by two rivers, water recreation tops the list for outdoor activities such as salmon fishing, river rafting, and boating. Nearby Folsom Lake and Lake Natoma offer sailing and windsurfing. Sacramento is located 90 miles northeast of San Francisco and approximately 90 miles west of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, providing numerous recreational opportunities for skiing and boating enthusiasts.
The United States Attorney is seeking experienced attorneys to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Sacramento Office. The Sacramento office has six criminal units: White Collar Crime, Special Prosecution, Transnational Organized Crime, Violent Crime & Firearms Trafficking, National Security, and the Training Unit. Typically, vacancies in the National Security Unit are filled by experienced AUSAs; new AUSAs who are not coming directly from another U.S. Attorney's Office of U.S. Department of Justice litigating component begin in the Training Unit with the goal of being placed in one of the remaining units. Your application will be considered for all AUSA vacancies in the Sacramento Criminal Division, but you may indicate a preference in your cover letter. Depending on unit assignment, the Assistant U.S. Attorney will be responsible for handling a variety of criminal cases including complex white collar, child exploitation, and narcotics and violent crimes.
Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.
Required Qualifications: Applicants must possess a J.D. Degree, be an active member of the bar (any U.S. jurisdiction), and have at least one year post-J.D. legal or other relevant experience. Applicants must be active members in good standing of the bar (any jurisdiction).
United States citizenship is required.
Preferred Qualifications:
Ideal qualifications include at least three to five years of experience litigating cases with substantial responsibility for all aspects of discovery, trial, and appeals. Applicants must demonstrate a quick analytical ability and the facility to accurately and precisely articulate the critical issues in a case. Applicants must demonstrate superior oral and writing skills as well as strong research and interpersonal skills, and good judgment. Applicants must possess excellent communication and courtroom skills and exhibit the ability to work in a supportive and professional manner with other attorneys, paralegals, support staff and client agencies. Applicants must have a demonstrated capacity to function in a highly demanding environment.
Applicants will be expected to do their own legal research and writing and will be substantially self-sufficient in preparing day-to-day correspondence and pleadings. Applicants must also demonstrate excellent computer literacy skills to include experience with automated research on the Internet, electronic court filing, and electronic e-mail and word processing systems.
The ideal candidate will have some experience working with multi-agency task forces; will have experience and familiarity with federal grand jury practice; will have experience with the use of a multitude of investigatory techniques, including electronic surveillance, tracking devices, search warrants, telephone toll record analysis and asset seizure and forfeiture; and will demonstrate the ability to handle complex cases from the initial investigative stage through trial.
You must meet all qualification requirements upon the closing date of this announcement.
Applications must be submitted online through the USAJobs portal at the following link: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/834395700.
Further application requirements and information can be found on the vacancy announcement link indicated above.
Applications received by April 4, 2025 ,will receive first consideration.
Further consideration will then be given to applications submitted by the closing date of this announcement, May 9, 2025.
Applicants should familiarize themselves and comply with the relevant rules of professional conduct regarding any possible conflicts of interest in connection with their applications. In particular, please notify this Office if you currently represent clients or adjudicate matters in which this Office is involved and/or you have a family member who is representing clients or adjudicating matters in which this Office is involved so that we can evaluate any potential conflicts of interest or disqualification issues that may need to be addressed under those circumstances.
Salary Information: Assistant United States Attorney's pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the number of years of professional attorney experience. The recruiting range of basic pay for AD-21 through AD-29 is $81,960 to $192,307 which includes 29.76% locality pay for the Sacramento area.
Department Policies
The United States government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor. To learn more, please visit the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
The Department encourages qualified applicants with disabilities, including individuals with targeted/severe disabilities to apply in response to posted vacancy announcements. Qualified applicants with targeted/severe disabilities may be eligible for direct hire, non-competitive appointment under Schedule A (5 C.F.R. § 213.3102(u)) hiring authority. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to contact one of the Department’s Disability Points of Contact (DPOC) to express an interest in being considered for a position. See list of DPOCs.
Unless otherwise required by law, the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits employees of the U.S. Department of Justice or a federal contractor acting on its behalf from inquiring about an applicant's criminal history record, either in writing or orally, before that individual receives a conditional offer of employment. Applicants who believe they have been subjected to a violation of the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, may submit a written complaint within 30 days of the date of the alleged non-compliance directly to the hiring office using the contact information listed in the announcement.
It is the policy of the Department to achieve a drug-free workplace and persons selected for employment will be required to pass a drug test which screens for illegal drug use prior to final appointment. Employment is also contingent upon the completion and satisfactory adjudication of a background investigation. Congress generally prohibits agencies from employing non-citizens within the United States, except for a few narrow exceptions as set forth in the annual Appropriations Act (see, https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/non-citizens/). Pursuant to DOJ component policies, only U.S. citizens are eligible for employment with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Trustee’s Offices, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unless otherwise indicated in a particular job advertisement, qualifying non-U.S. citizens meeting immigration and appropriations law criteria may apply for employment with other DOJ organizations. However, please be advised that the appointment of non-U.S. citizens is extremely rare; such appointments would be possible only if necessary to accomplish the Department's mission and would be subject to strict security requirements. Applicants who hold dual citizenship in the U.S. and another country will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
There is no formal rating system for applying veterans' preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of Justice considers veterans' preference eligibility as a positive factor in attorney hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans' preference must include that information in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., the DD 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty and other supporting documentation) to their submissions. Although the "point" system is not used, per se, applicants eligible to claim 10-point preference must submit Standard Form (SF) 15, Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference, and submit the supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed (visit the OPM website, www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/SF15.pdf for a copy of SF 15, which lists the types of 10-point preferences and the required supporting document(s). Applicants should note that SF 15 requires supporting documentation associated with service- connected disabilities or receipt of nonservice-connected disability pensions to be dated 1991 or later except in the case of service members submitting official statements or retirement orders from a branch of the Armed Forces showing that their retirement was due to a permanent service-connected disability or that they were transferred to the permanent disability retired list (the statement or retirement orders must indicate that the disability is 10% or more).
Assistant United States Attorneys must reside in the district to which appointed or within 25 miles thereof. See 28 U.S.C. 545 for district specific information.
This and other vacancy announcements can be found under Attorney Vacancies and Volunteer Legal Internships. The Department of Justice cannot control further dissemination and/or posting of information contained in this vacancy announcement. Such posting and/or dissemination is not an endorsement by the Department of the organization or group disseminating and/or posting the information.