DOJ revokes job offers to young lawyers in elite honors program
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The Justice Department has abruptly revoked recent job offers from the Attorney General’s Honors Program—a prestigious and competitive opportunity for top law school graduates to work in entry-level positions across the department.
The Trump administration’s cancellation of the program was confirmed by multiple people familiar with the decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. It is one of several unusual decisions made at the Justice Department since President Donald Trump took office Monday, including the reassignment of senior officials in multiple divisions; a directive that prosecutors consider criminal charges against local officials who don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts; a freeze on new or uncharged civil rights cases; and a review of police-reform agreements negotiated with localities in recent months.
Those who know the honors program said the cancellation is unprecedented and has the potential to demolish one of the Justice Department’s main recruiting efforts to get the nation’s top law school graduates into the public sector. The program has operated for more than 60 years, hiring young lawyers through Democratic and Republican administrations.
The decision was announced via short emails from the Justice Department on Wednesday afternoon, which cited a government-wide hiring freeze announced Monday, shortly after Trump was inaugurated.
“Pursuant to the hiring freeze announced Jan. 20, 2025, your job offer has been revoked,” said the email, multiple copies of which were obtained by The Washington Post.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The number of lawyers given offers through the program varies, but people familiar with it said upward of 100 can be hired each year. The most recent hires had staggered start dates throughout the second half of this year in divisions including antitrust, national security, criminal and more, the people familiar with the situation said. They were interviewed for the positions toward the end of the Biden administration and accepted their positions after the election knowing that Trump would be president, the people said.
Lawyers are hired for two years, with the aim of placing them in permanent career-track jobs after that. People familiar with the program said it was a key tool in replacing top legal talent lost through the usual attrition process.
Current students and graduates of Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Berkeley, Stanford and the University of Virginia law schools are among those affected. Deans at those schools who oversee public-interest law programs are reeling from the news and scrambling to help their students and graduates, according to people familiar with the matter.
“Since 1953, the Attorney General’s Honors Program has been recognized as the nation’s premier entry-level federal attorney recruitment program,” the Justice Department website states. “The Honors Program attracts candidates from hundreds of law schools across the country representing a broad cross-section of experiences and interests.”
In issuing the hiring freeze Monday, Trump ordered vacant positions to remain unfilled and said no new positions would be created. Hiring fellowship programs, such as the honors program, have typically been exempt from such freezes, according to federal guidelines.
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