A prosecutor and a defense attorney work the same cases from opposite sides: the prosecutor represents the government and pursues its charges, while the defense attorney represents the person accused.
In the prosecutor vs defense attorney comparison, both are lawyers who answer to their state's professional-conduct rules — but prosecutors carry extra ethics duties on top.
Here is how the roles differ, in who they represent, duties, ethics, pay and career moves.
Who each represents
A prosecutor is the government's lawyer in a criminal case.
When charges are brought, they are the government's charges, and the prosecutor pursues them against the accused rather than representing a private client.
The ethics rules treat the role differently: the comment to Ohio Rule 3.8, the state-adopted version of ABA Model Rule 3.8, puts it plainly — "A prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate."
Defense work sits across the aisle: the defense attorney represents the person accused.
That can mean a private criminal-defense lawyer a client retains, or one of the public defenders the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes as representing criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire a private attorney.
The BLS lists both prosecutor and public defender among the titles government lawyers carry.
For the defense side in depth — duties, employers and the path into practice — see our defense attorneys guide.
Different duties and ethical rules
Both sides practice under their state's rules of professional conduct.
The wording our sources record is Ohio's (as amended January 1, 2026), a state-adopted version of the ABA Model Rules, and each state adopts its own wording, so treat Ohio here as the example, not national law.
Shared ground first: candor to the tribunal.
A lawyer may not knowingly offer false evidence, and may refuse to offer evidence the lawyer reasonably believes is false — with one carve-out that matters on the defense side, the testimony of a criminal defendant.
For the defendant's own testimony, the rule does not give the lawyer that refusal.
The defense side also carries a distinctive allowance.
Under Ohio Rule 3.1, a lawyer for the defendant in a criminal proceeding may defend the proceeding so as to require that every element of the case be established — hold the government to its proof, element by element — even though lawyers otherwise may not bring frivolous claims or defenses.
Prosecutors carry special duties on top of that shared ground.
Ohio Rule 3.8, based on ABA Model Rule 3.8, collects the special obligations of prosecutors, including timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense.
Ohio left several of the ABA rule's subsections reserved, so the exact list of prosecutor duties varies by state.
Ethics rules are state rules
Is a prosecutor a lawyer?
Yes — a prosecutor is a lawyer.
"Prosecutor vs lawyer" or "prosecutor vs attorney" is not a matchup of two roles: prosecutor is one job a licensed lawyer can hold.
The BLS lists prosecutor among the titles government lawyers carry, alongside public defender and general counsel, and describes lawyers as typically needing a law degree and a state license, which usually requires passing a bar examination.
What separates a prosecutor from other attorneys is the employer and the assignment — the government, and its criminal cases — not the credential.
Whether the words "lawyer" and "attorney" differ as titles is a separate question entirely, which our lawyer vs attorney explainer takes up.
Pay and workload compared
Pay data for either role specifically is thin: the BLS wage tables we cite describe the lawyers occupation (SOC 23-1011) by industry, not by practice area.
In the May 2025 OEWS release, the median annual wage for lawyers was $159,670 nationally, with industry medians of $178,380 in the federal government, $157,870 in legal services (the industry row that covers law firms), $131,390 in local government and $115,330 in state government.
Prosecutor offices sit in the government rows; private criminal-defense practices sit in legal services.
On the defense side, appointed federal work has a published rate card.
Under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), about 13,000 private panel attorneys take federal appointments each year, paid $177 per hour in non-capital cases and up to $226 per hour in capital cases for work on or after January 1, 2026 — rates that cover both pay and office overhead.
Case compensation maximums in 2026 are $13,800 for felonies, $3,900 for misdemeanors and $9,800 for appeals, waivable with circuit approval.
Workload data runs the other way: the published numbers describe defense work.
The 2023 National Public Defense Workload Study (RAND, with the ABA and others) puts average hours per adult criminal case at 286 for life-without-parole cases, 248 for murder, 167 for sex crimes and 99 for other high-severity felonies; for lower-level cases, 57 and 35 hours for mid- and low-severity felonies, 33 and 19 for DUI, 22.3 and 13.8 for misdemeanors, and 13.5 for probation or parole violations.
Our research did not verify a comparable workload study for prosecutor offices — the Bureau of Justice Statistics is the primary source for prosecutor-office data.
The BLS's general finding is that most lawyers work full time, and some work more than 40 hours a week.
These are benchmarks, not role salaries
Switching sides: prosecutor to defense attorney
Prosecutors move to defense work, and the credentials travel with them — what changes is the conflict analysis for matters they touched in their old job.
The ethics rules anticipate the move.
Under Ohio Rule 1.11(a)(2), the state version of ABA Model Rule 1.11, a lawyer who leaves government work may not represent a client in a matter in which they participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee, unless the agency gives informed consent confirmed in writing.
The rule also lets the lawyer's new firm avoid imputed conflicts by timely screening and notice (Ohio Rule 1.11(b)).
States adopt their own wording, so the specifics vary by jurisdiction.
Where to find prosecutor jobs
Prosecutor jobs sit in local, state and federal government — the BLS counts prosecutor among the titles attorneys carry in federal, state and local government — and openings are posted by the offices doing the hiring.
For the full role profile — duties, employers, credentials and pay — start with our prosecutor guide, and browse prosecutor jobs on LawFirmHires to see what is open right now.
This page is career information, not legal advice. The ethics rules described here are state rules — confirm the current rules of professional conduct with the authority that enforces them in your state, and pay figures with the sources named above.