Independence and nice colleagues but outdated facilities, low pay, expensive market
Pros
Biggest pro is independence.As a government agency, everything is geared towards efficiency and there's pros and cons to that. One pro is that you aren't really micromanaged in any way--you are simply given cases, and you are expected to run with them. You have an attorney supervisor with whom you should regularly meet, and mine just wanted general updates on cases, but otherwise you are on your own. Salary is ok, but much much less than a private firm. Realistically, the salary is not worth it unless you live really close to the office--you can find remote jobs that pay more. The upside are the state benefits, including a pension if you work 5+ years (the OAG has high turnover because people find better opportunities at private firms).
Cons
Facilities suck. The building is old. The office furniture is old. The kitchen is gross. If you are in the General Litigation Division, you're mainly doing defense of agencies/officials, so it's not politicized--but you may get pulled into the occassional political pet project/culture issue of Ken Paxton, and the office is run by his underlings (think Federalist Society type attorneys). Although they'll have you focus on an area of law, you'll get random cases too that you have never dealt with (i.e., family law, custody etc.). And you are expected to just get it done. There's no training resources of any sort, so you have to rely on other attorneys. Luckily, everyone, staff and attorneys, are very nice. They try to promote work life balance, knowing the pay is lower, but there will be times where they are understaffed and you have to work a weekend here and there.
