by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
As first-year attorney salaries get higher and more competitive in the private sector, State Attorney Harry Shorstein is honing his recruitment skills and lobbying the state for a significant budget increase.
“Our increases haven’t kept pace with the cost of living,” said Shorstein. He’s a member of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, a nonprofit corporation of the 20 state attorneys that has pressed for more funding to keep talented attorneys in public service. “We [FPAA] have noticed over the years that the number of applicants has decreased because of pay. Our state salary today is $39,100. That is really disgraceful when you understand that it requires seven years of college and a license to practice.”
While starting salaries for corporate firms like Holland & Knight reached $100,000 this year, Shorstein said assistant state attorney’s starting salaries have stalled at $39,100. The beginner’s pay is the same for all state attorney’s offices across Florida, he said, creating hiring situations that are both better and worse than Jacksonville’s.
In highly-populated areas like Miami, Shorstein said, the cost of living – along with the huge pay gap between public and private attorneys – makes a position with the state attorney’s office unattractive to new, talented recruits. There’s less of a problem in rural areas with a lower cost of living, Shorstein added, and Jacksonville falls somewhere in between.
State statutes prevent local funding for state attorneys, so city governments don’t pay for anything but operational expenses like supplies and machinery. The budgetary burden falls on the state legislature, which gave Shorstein’s office nearly $20.7 million for the 2006-07 year, $18.8 million for 2005-06 and $17.8 million for 2004-05.
Shorstein said he and other state attorneys have turned to heavy recruitment efforts to keep up with competition. Luckily, he added, his district of Duval, Clay and Nassau counties has some advantages. Shorstein said those include a fast-moving courts system and a broad legal experience ranging from complex, violent, inner-city crimes in Jacksonville to a more rural, law enforcement-friendly environment in Clay.
“We have less of a problem [recruiting] than any of the others in the state, and frankly it’s always been that way,” said Shorstein.
He said his office of nearly 100 attorneys – which handles more than 100,000 cases a year – has a yearly turnover of 10-20. The number isn’t as bad as other areas, he said, considering the office expects some people to leave in order to make promotions.
He said recruits are asked to stay four years before leaving for a more lucrative job in private practice. The trade-off, he added, is a heavy, diverse workload that leaves young attorneys trial-ready and confident.
“Most of what lawyers do is dispute resolution,” said Shorstein. “There are not many trials in private practice anymore ... but it [a dispute] is resolved in acordance with the ability of the lawyers to ultimately try the case if necessary.”
The state attorney experience has value that he proves with examples, Shorstein said, from prominent trial attorney and Florida Bar President Hank Coxe to the three newly-elected judges Shorstein just replaced.
“All three of them [the assistant state attorney judicial candidates] had very tough opponents, very tough races ... and all three of them ran almost solely on their records as assistant state attorneys,” said Shorstein.
Dawn Hudson, for example, worked with Shorstein’s office for seven years and won an award for handling 20 trials in one year. “In private practice, you could go your entire career and never try 20 cases,” he said.
Despite his success stories, Shorstein said money will remain an extremely competitive issue. He keeps amortization tables behind his desk to show recruits just how challenging their new salaries will be when it comes to paying off student loans. Even with the warning, Shorstein said many recent graduates change their minds and leave after a year or two.
“When you’re talking to a young lawer who has $100,000 in student loans, it [$39,100] still does not put bread on the table and allow you to get married, have a baby, buy a car,” he said.
Shorstein said he’ll continue to push for an increase to raise the uniform starting salary for assistant state attorneys to $50,000.