South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Low pay keeping lawyers away from public service
When recent law school graduates apply to become an assistant state attorney or assistant public defender, they do not have any illusions that it will make them rich. They sign up for public service because they want to make a difference in the criminal justice system and in our community.
But today, our criminal justice system is facing a serious labor problem: The attorneys who labor to make the justice system work are leaving public service faster than we can hire and train new lawyers to replace them. The great resignation that has impacted every industry in the nation has also drastically affected career public service attorneys.
Rent and home prices have soared in South Florida, while recent law school graduates carry an average student loan debt of $160,000. The starting salary for an assistant state attorney and assistant public defender in Broward County — where the cost of living is increasingly high — is $50,000. This is far below the national average for entry-level prosecutors and assistant public defenders, which is $66,802 and $61,087 respectively, according to Biglaw Investor and Payscale.com.
Many attorneys in our offices are first-generation college graduates and attorneys, as are we. Our attorneys are dedicated and want to serve. They recognize that by choosing public service they would forgo the trappings of a lucrative legal career to serve the community of Broward.
We started our careers as an assistant state attorney and an assistant public defender and endured the financial sacrifice to serve. Today, public service attorneys on both sides of the courtroom are still struggling to maintain a roof over their heads as rent skyrockets in Broward. Yet despite the low salary, our attorneys work tirelessly and strive to ensure just and equitable criminal justice outcomes for this community.
Our responsibilities as Broward County’s public defender and state attorney may be different, but our need for experienced and dedicated lawyers is the same. It is essential to the mission of the state attorney to have seasoned prosecutors ready to litigate and pursue serious crimes. Case outcomes should not be delayed for the accused or for the victims. In the interest of justice, experienced and dedicated attorneys are also vital to the mission of the public defender, who strives to ensure that the innocent are protected and that the Constitution rings true for all who appear before the courts — not only by defending the accused, but also by breathing life into our constitutional protections.
The work of assistant state attorneys and assistant public defenders must be preserved and protected. We must not ignore the sacrifice of the people who work in these noble professions. Attorneys who labor in the courtrooms, strengthen the fabric that holds our society together. The work of justice is vitally important and must be supported.
As we ask our attorneys to do more with less, manage large caseloads and work though the pandemic backlog, we must also remain competitive with the private sector. The value in the experience and dedication of our attorneys is invaluable, thus we must establish a more realistic pay scale to recruit and retain them. We must raise our salaries for attorneys to closer match the tremendous responsibilities we ask them to bear, recognizing the cost-of-living challenges in South Florida.
As they craft the coming year’s state budget, our leaders in Tallahassee have the opportunity to address a growing problem in the criminal justice system and ensure that these essential workers are adequately compensated.