Swaths of Attorneys Leave Department of Justice

The Washington Post reported in November 2025 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had lost thousands of experienced attorneys since the start of the second Trump administration and had backfilled only a fraction of the vacated positions, with hiring slowed by a shortage of qualified candidates, bureaucratic delays, and hiring freezes. Of the roughly 10,000 attorneys who worked across the Department and its components in the prior year, the alumni advocacy group Justice Connection estimated that approximately 5,500 people — not all of them attorneys — had quit, been fired, or accepted a buyout. The Department did not provide a breakdown of attorney departures but did not deny that widespread vacancies existed. The departures fit a broader pattern of the administration driving out career employees, with the reported aim of replacing them with individuals aligned with the President's politics. The former dean of Georgetown University Law Center, William Treanor, told the Post that applications from his graduates had fallen dramatically, describing a shift "from a good amount of our graduating class to virtually no one." According to sources cited by the Post, the applications the Department was receiving came increasingly from individuals with explicitly political backgrounds — including those who had worked for Republican congressional offices or right-wing advocacy groups — or from attorneys with little relevant litigation experience.