For seven Boalties chosen to join the prestigious U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Honors Program, exhilaration turned into uncertainty after January’s executive order of a governmental hiring freeze.
Several weeks of limbo later, the good news arrived for Hayley Carpenter ’16, Andy Coghlan ’15, Katherine DeMocker ’15, Lisa Nash ’14, Monsura Sirajee ’17, Ben Takemoto ’15, and a graduate who wants to remain anonymous: their offers would go forward.
A school-record nine people from Berkeley Law received DOJ offers. Of the seven who accepted, two each will join the Civil Rights Division and the Environment & Natural Resources Division. Those divisions typically hire only 10 to 12 attorneys per year and receive the most applications among participating sectors. “
After working very closely with all of our applicants, it was so thrilling to see their unprecedented success in landing spots with one of the nation’s most competitive programs,” says Eric Stern, director of operations in Berkeley Law’s Career Development Office.
Selection criteria includes a demonstrated commitment to government service; academic achievement; leadership; journal, clinical, moot court, and mock trial experience; past employment; and extracurricular activities. Eligible candidates are 3Ls and recent law school alumni who entered judicial clerkships, graduate law programs, or qualifying legal fellowships within nine months of graduating.
Takemoto will work for the DOJ’s Federal Programs Branch, which he learned about from Professor Anne Joseph O’Connell.
“She worked there and mentioned it in Advanced Administrative Law,” Takemoto explains. “It was one of my favorite courses, and working at Federal Programs is essentially like getting paid to take that class. I couldn’t be luckier.”
—Andrew Cohen