A government attorney is a lawyer who works for a federal, state or local government — advising agencies, drafting regulations, litigating the government's cases and, in roles like administrative law judge, deciding them.
A federal attorney at an agency, a state assistant attorney general, a city attorney and a JAG officer all do this work.
Prosecutors and public defenders are government lawyers too; this page covers the rest of public-sector practice.
What does a government attorney do day to day?
A government attorney's work falls into a handful of recurring modes, and the federal government's own job classification names them.
The Office of Personnel Management classifies federal attorney positions in the GS-0905 General Attorney series, which covers preparing cases for trial and trying them before a court or an administrative body, giving legal advice to an agency, and drafting regulations, contracts and legislative comments.
Those activities — litigation, counsel, rulemaking and drafting — are the recurring modes of a federal attorney seat, and the sections below read the rest of public-sector practice through them.
In advisory seats, agency counsel answer program offices' questions in writing, review proposed actions for legal authority and flag risk before decisions are made.
The client is the government itself, so the advice is continuous rather than tied to a single dispute.
Regulatory and drafting work builds on that counsel role: attorneys write the regulations that carry out statutes, negotiate and review the government's contracts, and prepare the comments agencies send on legislation.
Much of this writing becomes the government's official text, which is why precision matters so much in these seats.
Litigation is the visible end of the work.
Government attorneys prepare and try cases before courts and administrative bodies, enforcing statutes and defending agency decisions when the government is a party.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' picture of government lawyers includes prosecutor, public defender and general counsel among the titles attorneys hold in federal, state and local government.
Prosecution and public defense are courtroom criminal practices with their own career paths, while the rest of this page focuses on the advisory, regulatory and civil-side work that makes up the broader public-sector practice.
Where do government attorneys work and who employs them?
Government is one of the legal profession's largest employer groups.
Lawyers held about 863,700 jobs in 2025, and per the BLS the largest employers were legal services (52%), self-employed lawyers (11%), local government excluding education and hospitals (8%), state government excluding education and hospitals (7%) and the federal government (5%).
County, state and federal legal offices all sit inside those government rows.
For how the whole employment picture fits together, see what attorneys do across settings.
At the federal level, the ABA's 2024 Profile of the Legal Profession reported that the Justice Department employs the most general attorneys — nearly 13,000 of them — and found women were 51.5% of federal executive-branch general attorneys as of December 2023.
Attorney positions are not confined to DOJ: the GS-0905 General Attorney series is the federal job classification for these positions across agencies.
Some federal attorneys decide cases rather than argue them.
Immigration judges, appointed by the U.S. Attorney General, hear cases at roughly 70 locations, some in detention facilities or by video.
EOIR's core requirements for the role are an LL.B., J.D. or LL.M., active bar membership and seven years of post-bar legal experience.
State and local government seats sit in offices such as attorneys general offices, state agencies and city and county attorney offices — our research verified staffing figures for none of these offices.
Another employer is the military: Army JAG Corps officers are commissioned attorneys, and the Army's published requirements are the ones our research verified — a J.D. from an ABA-accredited school, a license in any state, U.S. citizenship by commissioning, being under age 42 and secret-clearance eligibility.
Requirements for the other branches' JAG corps were not verified, so they are not covered here.
What skills and credentials does a government attorney need?
The license is the same as any attorney's.
The BLS describes lawyers as typically needing a law degree and a state license, which usually requires passing a bar examination.
One verified detail: Army JAG accepts a license from any state.
The skills follow the modes in the day-to-day section: written advisory work, regulatory drafting, contract work and litigation.
One federal employer's criteria make the priorities explicit — the Department of Justice weighs commitment to government service, academics, leadership, journal, moot court or mock trial participation, clinics, past employment and relevant extracurriculars in its Honors Program selection.
Bar admission is state by state
What does a typical caseload or workload look like?
There is no single typical caseload — the shape of the work follows the seat.
Litigators carry a docket governed by court deadlines; advisory attorneys work through a queue of questions from program offices; regulatory attorneys move rulemaking projects forward; hearing officers run calendars of cases set for decision.
On hours, the BLS's general finding about lawyers applies here: most lawyers work full time, and some work more than 40 hours a week.
Our research did not verify caseload statistics for government law offices.
For a realistic picture of a specific office, its own job announcements and conversations with current attorneys are the better guide.
How does the role compare with nearby attorney roles?
Prosecutors and public defenders are government attorneys too — the BLS lists both among the titles government lawyers hold — but the work is courtroom criminal practice.
Prosecutors pursue the charges the government brings, while public defense attorneys represent criminal defendants who cannot afford a private attorney.
Both roles have their own guides: read our prosecutor guide and public defender guide for that side of public-sector practice.
The advisory side of government has a single institutional client — the government itself — which makes the seat look more like in-house practice than firm practice.
General counsel is the BLS's third government-lawyer title.
See our in-house counsel guide for the corporate side of that seat.
Adjudication is the neighboring seat: administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers decide cases rather than argue them.
The BLS counted about 17,400 of these jobs in 2025, with a May 2025 median annual wage of $117,860 — adjudication sits adjacent to agency practice within the same government system.
How do you become a government attorney?
The foundation is the same as any legal career: the BLS describes lawyers as typically needing a law degree and a state license, which usually requires passing a bar examination.
From there, the routes in differ by employer.
Federal entry has a front door.
The Department of Justice's Attorney General's Honors Program, running since 1953, is its entry-level attorney recruitment program.
Eligibility is limited to graduating law students and recent graduates who entered a judicial clerkship, graduate law program or qualifying legal fellowship within 9 months of graduation and who meet additional eligibility requirements, and the window is short — for the 2026–2027 cycle, the application opened on August 28, 2026 and closed on September 8, 2026.
In selection, DOJ weighs commitment to government service, academics, leadership, journal, moot court or mock trial participation, clinics, past employment and relevant extracurriculars.
There are other doors.
Federal agencies can hire law graduates pending bar admission as law clerk trainees under 5 CFR 213.3102(e), in appointments that may not exceed 14 months.
Federal attorney positions sit in the excepted service under Schedule A, 5 CFR 213.3102(d), so agencies recruit directly rather than through competitive-service examining.
And the military route is its own pipeline: Army JAG applicants need the degree, license, citizenship, age and clearance eligibility listed above.
How much do government attorneys make?
By the BLS's industry medians for lawyers, the federal government's is the highest of the rows the agency reports.
BLS median annual wages for lawyers (SOC 23-1011) in May 2025 were $178,380 in the federal government — above legal services at $157,870 — against $131,390 in local government and $115,330 in state government.
These are occupation-wide medians by industry; the BLS tables we cite do not break lawyers out by practice area.
Two caveats keep the numbers honest.
BLS wage figures exclude self-employed lawyers and owners and partners of unincorporated businesses.
And at the entry point the picture comes from a different series: NALP's Class of 2025 medians put the starting salary for new graduates entering government at $81,000 — against $100,000 in business.
For the fuller pay picture, see our government attorney salary page.
Different series, different numbers
Where to find government attorney jobs
Federal openings are posted by the hiring agencies themselves — on USAJOBS and on agencies' own legal careers pages.
The Justice Department's Honors Program is the main structured entry route, with its short late-summer application window.
One honest market note: NALP counted new graduates hired by the federal government (excluding judicial clerkships) falling 37.0%, from nearly 1,100 in the Class of 2024 to about 690 in the Class of 2025 — which makes the structured programs and early applications matter that much more.
The broader public-service market stays substantial: public-service employers took 31.0% of Class of 2025 jobs — government 12.0%, judicial clerkships 10.0% and public interest 9.0%.
State and local seats sit with the offices named earlier — attorneys general offices, state agencies and city and county attorney offices.
On LawFirmHires you can browse government attorney jobs in one place, with openings as employers post them.
This page is career information, not legal advice. Bar admission rules are set state by state — confirm current requirements with the admitting authority where you plan to practice, and pay figures with the sources named above.