Assistant United States Attorney

Hiring Organization
USAO Northern District of Illinois
Hiring Office
Chicago, IL
Job ID
AUSA-NDIL-25-2
Location:
219 S. Dearborn Street
5th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604 - United States
Application Deadline:
Monday, December 15, 2025
About the Office
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois (NDIL) has more than 160 Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) working in its Criminal and Civil Divisions. NDIL has two offices, one located in Chicago and the other in Rockford. Criminal AUSAs handle a wide variety of cases, including drug trafficking, firearms and other violent crime offenses, immigration offenses, terrorism-related offenses, cyber-crimes, and a variety of fraud, public corruption, and white-collar offenses. Criminal AUSAs represent the United States in grand jury and judicial proceedings in United States District Court and appeals in the United States Court of Appeals. Civil AUSAs handle an array of defensive and affirmative litigation on behalf of the United States, its agencies, and employees before the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals. Defensive litigation includes medical malpractice and other personal injury cases, employment discrimination cases, challenges to agency actions, FOIA, and immigration. Affirmative matters include civil rights, environmental, food and drug, along with health care and other civil fraud cases. All AUSAs are responsible for substantial legal research and writing. The dynamic practice in the Office is both challenging and demanding. It represents an extraordinary opportunity and privilege to represent the United States and to participate in all aspects of federal criminal or civil law and practice.

Job Description
The Northern District of Illinois, Chicago Office is accepting applications for Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) openings in its Criminal Division in Chicago, Illinois. The applicant selected will represent the U.S. Government as an AUSA in a wide range of unique and complex cases and trials. The applicant must be committed to working on the full range of federal criminal cases that the Office handles. That includes the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes; firearms offenses; drug crimes; human trafficking; criminal immigration matters; public corruption; money laundering violations; national security cases; general crimes; and all varieties of white-collar crime and frauds, including federal program frauds and frauds in areas such as healthcare, trade and customs, mortgage, tax, Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), among others.

Qualifications
Required Qualifications: Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction), and have at least 2 years of post-J.D. experience. Your application materials should demonstrate excellent academics, significant litigation experience, criminal law experience, strong legal writing skills, and a commitment to public service. Prior federal criminal prosecution experience in NDIL is not required, but candidates with such experience are encouraged and will be given serious consideration.

You must meet all qualification requirements upon the closing date of the announcement.

United States citizenship is required.

Application Process
Application information for AUSA-NDIL-25-2 is available at the following site: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/job-listing.

To apply, please provide a complete application package, which consists of the following 5 items:

Item 1 must be submitted through the USAJobs portal AND sent via email, in PDF format, to USAILN.hiring@usdoj.gov.

Resume and cover letter
Items 2-5 should ONLY be submitted via email, in PDF format, to USAILN.hiring@usdoj.gov. PLEASE DO NOT submit items 2-5 through the USAJobs portal.

Law school transcript
Writing sample written by you within the last year
Three letters of professional recommendation from people who are in a position to assess your legal skills
AUSA Questionnaire and Personal Statement indicating why you think you would be a good trial lawyer and why you want to work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois

Applicants who fail to follow the steps above will not be considered. Your application package will not be considered complete, and will not be reviewed for consideration, until all 5 items have been received.

No telephone calls please.

Applicants should familiarize themselves and comply with the relevant rules of professional conduct regarding any possible conflicts of interest in connection with their applications. In particular, please notify this Office if you currently represent clients or adjudicate matters in which this Office is involved and/or you have a family member who is representing clients or adjudicating matters in which this Office is involved so that we can evaluate any potential conflicts of interest or disqualification issues that may need to be addressed under those circumstances.

Salary
Assistant United States Attorneys’ pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the number years of professional attorney experience. The range of basic pay is $82,655 to $195,100 which includes 30.86% locality pay. Read more