Anonymous said on June 08, 2005  

Luckily I archived the old version of the DA's office in #17, and there were a large number of things they said that could probably be considered unethical. The new version, is mostly just human interest stories and rants about other parts of the executive (or the executive in other states.) Some of them are wildly incorrect, but this is to be expect on a website aimed at non-lawyers.

Also, why do they have so many unpaid interns?

 Michael D. Pratt said on June 08, 2005  

#17- If you want to have fun sometime, talk to some of the Judges that use to be mentioned frequently in the outrage of the month section.

 Anonymous said on June 08, 2005  

I expect this kind of website out of non-lawyers, but for lawyers it is unpardonable and unethical. He seems to have come to the conclusion that if he can say bad things about judges that his lawyers do not appear before he is in the clear. He also refrains, it seems from mentioning Supreme Court cases. Since this is a website for lay people he doesn’t cite to actual cases, because he figures that they will buy just about any piece of propaganda. And they do. What is sort of funny is he quotes from the article about a judge telling a rape victim to “get over it” that was later found by a jury to be defamatory!

 Ken Lammers said on June 08, 2005  

A large office having a number of unpaid interns isn't all that uncommon (in my experience). I think that a lot of law students think it is something good to have on their resumes and hope it might lead to a job.

 Mister DA said on June 08, 2005  

Based on the number of Assistants profiled (14, I think, including the chief) is this a large office? We have the elected PA, a chief assistant, 11 full time APAs and one part-time APA. 13.5 attorneys. No on considers us a large office.

With three full-time, paid interns for the summer, we're at about maximum capacity. On the other hand, out interns do real work - research and writing, pre-trial hearings in misdemeanor court, misdemeanor bench and jury trials, witness prep, etc.

When I saw the "class" picture, I thought this must be a major metro area office.

 Anonymous said on June 08, 2005  

I have a problem with using unpaid interns for anything, or requiring that people work for free.


Now, when I was in law school, I never applied for any of those unpaid internships, and I still got the same amount of experience others did. However, a few of my classmates were lured in by a "line of sh**" (as one person who hires unpaid interns termed it) about how their office respects summer interns and hires them. (Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.)

There is something profoundly wrong about asking people to work for free. In fact, if the private sector was doing it, in most cases it would be illegal. Their employment status is nebulous, and most of them are operating under the belief that people see them as talented. They don't. Everyone knows that ANYONE can work for free in a DA's office and it is hardly an impressive thing to put on a resume.

If their skills are so valuable they could simply pay them. It isn't as if DAs are hurting for money, or there is a real shortage of lawyers. Likewise, there is a robust market for legal work, so it isn't a circumstance where the free market can't provide low-level legal work to a DA's office. Instead, they seem to be relying on some sort of moral argument to convince

As a citizen I am somewhat disturbed by the fact that uncompensated non-lawyers are representing the “people” (or “commonwealth” or “state”) at trial. This essentially means that someone with less than the minimal amount of competence required for a bar exam is protecting me from the anarchy that the sum-total of misdemeanors in any jurisdiction represents.

Finally, my family would disown me if I worked for free. Although I don't have the final say in hiring, any candidate who admits that they "volunteered" for a government agency will get a negative recommendation from me. Take it off your resume before someone with self-respect spots it.

 Michael D. Pratt said on June 09, 2005  

It's a fairly large office, second largest in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Only Louisville's prosecutor's office is bigger.

I have no personal expereince with the internships in his office, I did mine up in Louisville and that was for course credit and the chance to get out of the court room.