Are you interested in becoming a State Attorney or Administrative Law Judge?

If you are a new or experienced attorney there are many openings with the
state.  As you are probably aware, accepting work with a public entity can
be difficult especially during these economic times.  It is therefore
important that you have all information available to you when you are
considering an offer from a department. 

Many potential employees are not aware that they have a limited ability to
negotiate their salary with the state when they are first hired so they are
not brought in at the minimum of the pay scale.  This is called "Hired Above
Minimum" and is authorized in Government Code Section 19836. 

The 2 main factors that you need to be aware to be hired above minimum are
how much you were making for the 12 months prior to accepting a position
with state (documentation must be submitted) and your experience. 

The term used to determine where you should be placed based on your years of
experience is called the "Alternate Range Criteria" or ARC.  It is extremely
important that you be placed appropriately based on your experience
otherwise your opportunities for promotion could be held up in the future.
You can determine the Alternate Range Criteria for the position you are
considering by following these steps:

      1.  Go to www.dpa.ca.gov
      2.  Click on the Salary Tab
      3.  Click on Pay Scales
      4.  Click on Salaries of Civil-Service Classifications-Alphabetic listing.
      5.  Find the Classification you are considering excepting a position for
           under the heading "AR Crit"
      6.  Go back to the Pay Scales page
      7.  Click on Alternate Ranges
      8.  Click on the appropriate range criteria.  For example if you are
           applying for a Staff Counsel position the number is 217 so you
           would click on Ranges 200-299.
      9.  Either scroll down to the appropriate number or go to "Edit" and use the
           "Find" feature to locate the appropriate ARC
      10.  Review and print out ARC to discuss with Legal management and
            Personnel regarding the range and salary

Note that not all classifications may have an ARC and that the ARCs are not
consistent amongst the different but similar classifications. 

Example:  An attorney with 3 years of legal experience since being admitted
to the Bar applies for a position at the State Compensation Fund.  The
attorney was working in the private sector and made $6000 per month for the
last 12 months.  A review of the ARC shows that they could be placed in
Range C.  With documentation they can argue that they should be paid more
than the minimum of Range C which is $5,638 and that they should be making
$6000 because of their extraordinary qualifications.

There is no guarantee that a department will hire an attorney above minimum
but hopefully armed with this information and the documents authorizing
departments to hire above minimum you will be able to begin your state
employment on a positive note.

Please feel free to call the CASE office at 800-699-6533 if you have any
questions about becoming a state employee.