As Lawyers Exit Government Service, Don’t Overlook The Potential

Government lawyers are headed to your office in droves. Should you give them a second look if their resume isn’t a perfect fit for your team on first glance?

There’s always turnover in federal offices around the changing of an administration, but this time feels different. Federal employees are often drawn to the government by job security, strong benefits, and public service work that has purpose and meaning. It’s an honor to stand up in court and introduce yourself as the individual representing the United States of America.

But the Trump administration came to Washington with talk of “government efficiency,” the potential for eliminating jobs and entire departments, and a flurry of early executive orders to back it up. In President Donald Trump’s first days, he signed orders making it easier to fire career employees, terminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental justice offices, implementing a hiring freeze, and ordering government workers to return to the office. A number of agencies will likely be led by individuals who have been highly critical of that agency’s work, and priorities are going to change drastically.

For some of the federal government’s 44,000-plus lawyers, working for the government may not be, well, appealing. No surprise that recruiters are seeing a significant surge in the number of resumes coming from government attorneys.

Significant change usually presents opportunity in the law, and the coming wave of government lawyers may present companies and law firms with the chance to onboard talent that’s not always on the market. How do you prepare for it?

First, think about how the incoming administration might affect your clients. Change often brings about conflict, as well as winners and losers. This can mean more work for lawyers in new areas (and less work in areas that might have been busy over the last four years).

Which clients are vulnerable to tariffs, tightened immigration, reduced regulatory scrutiny? And what are the implications for your staffing needs? You may need some different skillsets than in the past.

Second, identify how attorneys with government experience might add value to your firm or company in this new world. Government lawyers often have more hands-on experience than most lawyers in their graduating class. In my first month as a government lawyer straight out of a clerkship, I was handling hearings with witnesses as the only lawyer at the table, writing briefs, cross-examining witnesses, handling arguments. The government often can’t afford to staff cases heavily, and as a result many government lawyers bring experience that can’t be found in junior lawyers with private firm backgrounds.

Government lawyers can also bring a deep understanding of the regulatory environment where they’ve practiced for years—their focus on one area means they know their area at a depth that’s often hard to find. More than that, they know the inner workings of their particular agency, who has influence, how decisions are made. A lawyer who spends at least a few months in an agency post-transition might give you a window into a world that not many others can provide.

For example, a Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer might get a good understanding of how the agency will approach cybersecurity enforcement, ESG, and crypto currency—areas that could impact companies across many industries. An attorney might also learn who the new key decision-makers and influencers at the agency will be.

A Department of Labor attorney might get insights into how the agency will approach gig worker classification or the overtime rule in the new administration. And of course, government attorneys from any agency leave with a network of colleagues who stay behind who might be valuable to clients looking to resolve potential problems.

When evaluating your government lawyer hiring strategy, don’t automatically pigeonhole candidates into their narrow areas of past experience. When I was a federal prosecutor looking to move to an in-house job, a lot of companies told me that I was “a great prosecutor…but we don’t prosecute people here.”

What they didn’t appreciate was how my courtroom experience could translate into managing litigation, how persuasive writing and speaking translates across disciplines, or how skills honed by negotiating and drafting plea agreements could, with a little work, serve me well in managing contracts. eBay hired a number of government attorneys straight out of government in the early 2000s, and we all thrived in that fast paced, creative environment—some from that group went on to enjoy success as members of the executive team at places like Meta, Google, Wikimedia, Uber and Airbnb.

There are scores of terrific lawyers in the federal government, but not all of them are necessarily a good fit for your organization, your culture, or your specific needs. If you’re looking for an attorney to bring in business to your law firm, for example, this isn’t a muscle that a lot of government attorneys have exercised; consider whether they have demonstrated an active involvement in the broader community that might provide connections leading to work.

Has the attorney ever demonstrated an entrepreneurial bent (a side job, for example) that might help you evaluate whether they will appreciate working in a business? Will clients understand (and be impressed) by the government experience that the attorney will bring? If you’re in-house, has the potential hire ever used your product and services?

A purpose-driven government lawyer might do quite well in a purpose-driven company. I applied to eBay as a power user, buying and selling camera equipment on the side while I worked as a prosecutor—I knew the site well and was passionate about the company’s mission, and that experience stood out.

Making the jump from the federal government to a private firm or company isn’t for everyone, and the longer one has been with the government, the harder the transition is likely to be. It involves a commitment on both sides to make it work—but in an environment where a rich talent pool suddenly hits the market, it’s too good an opportunity to just pass up.

Go talk to your recruiter, adjust your resume-scanning algorithms, and start looking.

Rob Chesnut consults on legal and ethical issues and was formerly general counsel and chief ethics officer at Airbnb. He spent more than a decade as a Justice Department prosecutor and he writes on in-house, corporate, and ethics issues.

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