Former DOJ Attorneys Scoff at Civil Division Retention Bonus (1)

A Justice Department initiative to retain attorneys defending the Trump administration’s policies in court is unlikely to sustain an increasingly overworked staff that’s struggling to attract new recruits, former department lawyers said.

The head of DOJ’s Civil Division, Brett Shumate, informed his attorneys Monday that they would begin receiving a “retention incentive allowance” ranging from around $60 to $220 every pay period through Thanksgiving, according to an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

The effort, which former division lawyers described as first-of-its-kind, is seen as a particularly modest incentive for attorneys bogged down by an ever-growing caseload as the division investigates youth transgender treatments and defends President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.

The reorientation of DOJ under Trump to rapidly advance deportations and other politically conservative priorities has already pushed dozens of lawyers with decades of experience from the division. The division has since struggled to hire fast enough to replace those who have left, and is now offering a $25,000 signing bonus in several recent job postings.

Attorneys who have remained to handle the workload are unlikely to see the retention money as an incentive to stay, especially compared to the far more lucrative spots at private law firms, the DOJ former lawyers said. DOJ’s difficulty retaining talent at the Civil Division and across the department marks a reputational shift for once-coveted government jobs, a change that could affect the long-term success of the department’s affirmative and defensive litigation, former division lawyers said.

“None of us stayed at DOJ for the money; we stayed for the work,” said Rupa Bhattacharyya, who left the Civil Division in 2022 following roughly two decades in various attorney and leadership roles.

“If we didn’t like the work or didn’t think we could ethically perform it, there are lots of other available opportunities out there, many of which pay comparably if not significantly more,” Bhattacharyya said.

Shumate defended the payments in a statement, saying the division will continue to “offer appreciation bonuses to our loyal attorneys who remain committed to our mission and upholding the rule of law.”

Not About Money

Former Civil Division lawyers, including some who left since the start of Trump’s second term, say an additional $60 to $220 per paycheck is unlikely to be a major factor in the calculus of career attorneys deciding to leave.

“The Civil Division has historically hired and retained incredibly talented attorneys, who could be making three times their salaries in the private sector,” said Dennis Fan, a Columbia Law School professor who previously worked as an appellate staff attorney at the Civil Division.

“The reason they join DOJ is because of a professional desire to serve the public and a moral need to do so with integrity. There’s not really any amount of money that could replace those benefits,” Fan said.

Division attorneys are already eligible for annual bonuses based on performance, Bhattacharyya said. This is on top of “spot” awards to attorneys or paralegals for superb work, which Bhattacharyya said could range up to $1,000 at a time or be given in the form of additional paid time off.

The division’s Office of Immigration Litigation has been hit particularly hard with departures of longtime attorneys as the office has struggled to defend the administration’s fast-moving detention and deportation agenda.

Attorneys in the office are overworked, and “many would value additional leave far more than a modest financial incentive,” said Jesse Bless, who served as a trial attorney and senior litigation counsel at OIL until 2017. Bless, now an immigration attorney with his own practice, has helped lawyers who have recently left OIL land jobs elsewhere.

“The caliber of talent at DOJ generally does not make employment decisions based on marginal financial considerations,” Bless said.

But Aram Gavoor, former senior counsel for national security in the Civil Division, viewed the retention initiative differently. Any increased pay can help retain attorneys trusted with defending the executive when the government is sued, he said.

Following the massive cuts to the federal workforce at the start of the second Trump administration, “this is the strongest signal yet that the Civil Division” is “looking to really lean in using all of the HR authorities that it has to retain the best and brightest,” Gavoor said.

Reputation Shift

The retention and hiring bonuses are signals that DOJ is no longer attracting the same high-caliber level of attorneys for jobs that have long been highly competitive, former department attorneys said.

Attorney job postings would previously have “hundreds of highly qualified applicants competing for a single slot, with many or most applicants offering to give up salaries substantially higher than that offered at DOJ,” said Amy Powell, who left DOJ in August 2025 after nearly 20 years in the Civil Division’s federal programs branch.

Powell attributed recent staffing woes to the perception of the department as the president’s personal litigation arm, as well as “attacks on the integrity of career attorneys from inside and outside the Department” and a “rapid decline in quality and commitment to principled justice.”

The Civil Division under Trump has repeatedly lost attempts in court to obtain records on medical care provided to minors experiencing gender dysphoria. Judges have also admonished DOJ attorneys for failing to keep up with court deadlines and orders in high-profile cases, including those tied to Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.

Restoring the reputation of DOJ and attracting strong attorneys will require more than retention and signing bonuses, Powell said.

“Rebuilding,” Powell said, “is going to require accountability for those who broke the institution, real reforms to protect the integrity of the Department, and the hard work of the principled career attorneys who remain.”