Government Lawyer - Prosecutor Clinic

The Government Lawyer - Prosecution clinic offers a multitude of opportunities to work in prosecutorial offices at the federal and state level.  Students are placed at either the Massachusetts Attorney General's office of United States Attorney's Office in Boston. 

Massachusetts Attorney General's Office

Each academic year, ten to twenty students are placed in various departments including:

• Appellate Division: Represents the Commonwealth in federal court by handling all habeas corpus cases which challenge the constitutionality of state criminal court convictions and all state court cases which are appealed to the United States Supreme Court; a large number of state and federal civil suits filed against judges, district attorneys, and other court officers; and filing amicus briefs in the state appellate courts on important or novel issues of state criminal law.
• Economic Crimes Division: Works with State Police, civilian investigators, the Insurance Fraud Bureau, and the Department of Revenue in the investigation and prosecution of tax violations and major fraud cases, including consumer and insurance frauds and larcenies by attorneys, investment advisers, and other fiduciaries.
• Environmental Crimes Strike Force: Works with the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and State Police to investigate and prosecute the Commonwealth's environmental enforcement efforts, including hazardous and solid waste dumping, water pollution, improper asbestos handling, wetlands violations, and fish and wildlife violations.
• Community Based Justice Bureau: This is the research and policy bureau thst is comprised of Assistant Attorneys General, social workers, and advocates. It develops and implements such initiatives as the Safe Neighborhood Initiative. It also advises the Attorney General in such areas as family and domestic violence, juvenile justice, youth violence prevention, and victim rights, with a focus on child protection.
• High Tech & Computer Crime Division: This division provides legal, technical, and investigative support to the law enforcement community in the area of seizing computers and successfully retrieving the information they contain, also known as computer forensics. The unit conducts investigations of criminal offenses related to high technology and/or committed through the use of computer technology.
• Special Investigations & Narcotics Division: Consists of lawyers and investigators responsible for investigating and prosecuting multi-defendant narcotics trafficking cases and organized crimes, including the direction of grand jury undercover investigations with the State Police, warranted searches, and electronic surveillance.
• Public Integrity Division: Works with civilian investigators, State Police, and state watchdog agencies to investigate and prosecute crimes of public corruption such as bribery and violations of the Massachusetts conflict of interest statute; fraud against government agencies in procurement and other matters; election law and campaign finance violations; and various larcenies, tax crimes, and other violations of the public trust by government officials and by those dealing with public agencies.
• Public Protection Bureau: The work of this Bureau involves assisting with policy-making; evaluating and drafting legislation; research, investigation, and prosecution of lead paint cases, health care cases, and a variety of other cases from the various Public Protection Bureau divisions.

U.S. Attorney's Office

Students placed at the United States Attorney's Office in Boston are required to complete a lengthy security clearance process by the Department of Justice, which involves numerous forms and fingerprinting. This process takes at least eight weeks for final clearance, which is then valid for only six months. This clearance process is not just a formality, and in some instances clearance has been denied. The U.S. Attorney's Office offers placements in the following criminal divisions:

• Economic Crimes Unit: The Economic Crimes Unit handles complex economic crimes expected to require grand jury or other investigative effort, such as bank frauds and embezzlement, bankruptcy frauds, advance fee schemes, boiler room cases, tax cases, mail and wire frauds, securities frauds, environmental crimes, defense procurement frauds, non-drug-related money laundering cases, and non-defense federal program and procurement fraud matters.
• Major Crimes Unit: The Major Crimes Unit handles violent crime (arson, bank robbery, offenses against children, firearms offenses, kidnapping, and threats); property crimes (dollar losses less substantial than those handled by the Economic Crimes Unit); bank fraud and embezzlement; mail and wire fraud; computer and credit card fraud; interstate transportation of stolen property; theft from interstate shipment; federal program fraud (including fraud against the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs); civil rights violations; and other matters of primary federal interest, including counterfeiting, customers offense, immigration violations, labor offense, and postal violations.
• Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit: This unit (also known as the drug unit) handles narcotics violations prosecuted as federal crimes, including drug related racketeering, money laundering, and tax crimes. This unit, with assistance from federal, state, and local enforcement agencies, investigates and prosecutes organizations responsible for large-scale narcotics trafficking. Drug unit cases range from "buy/bust" prosecution to sophisticated money laundering prosecution.
• Organized Crime Strike Force: The organized crime unit handles complex long term matters, utilizing extensive grand jury and electronic surveillance, and often using statutes such as RICO.
• Public Corruption and Special Prosecution Unit: The Public Corruption Unit handles sensitive cases involving allegations of corruption against elected and appointed federal, state, and local officials.
• Civil Division: This unit is responsible for defending the United States in a wide range of tort cases, employment litigation, administrative law review cases, and civil rights suits.

Clinical Information

Fall or Spring clinical
Open to 2L, 3L students
Pre-Requisites: None

09/10 Clinical Courses

Government Lawyer: The Prosecutor
Instructors: Alex Whiting
Fall course; Fall or Spring clinical