{"id":762,"date":"2012-02-02T09:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T14:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~career\/blog\/?p=762"},"modified":"2022-12-08T12:18:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T16:18:32","slug":"world-of-work-scott-whitted-74-deputy-chief-district-court-litigation-division-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/world-of-work-scott-whitted-74-deputy-chief-district-court-litigation-division-u-s-department-of-homeland-security\/","title":{"rendered":"World of Work: Scott Whitted \u201974, Deputy Chief, District Court Litigation Division, U.S. Department of Homeland Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Homeland<\/p>\n

Scott Whitted \u201974
\n<\/strong>Deputy Chief, District Court Litigation Division, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
\nUnited States Government, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
\nWilliston, VT<\/p>\n

Major: Political Science<\/p>\n

What type of law do you practice and how did you choose that? <\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve practiced civil law for my entire career, including private practice, with the Vermont Attorney General\u2019s Office and now at one of the agencies in the Department of Homeland Security. I\u2019ve never been a full-time litigator, but before I started my federal job I spent some time in court, especially when I was in the Attorney General\u2019s office.\u00a0Although criminal law and criminal procedure were interesting classes in law school, I never wanted to practice criminal law.\u00a0Civil law held more appeal for me.<\/p>\n

What surprised you about law school and\/or the practice of law?<\/strong>
\nOne big surprise was how poorly many lawyers write. The textbooks for most law school courses are compilations of judges\u2019 decisions that often are not well written. They tend to be too long and full of obscure language. Law students copy the style, which perpetuates bad writing. In addition, practicing law can be a real grind, with much tedium and little glamour. There are rarely quick resolutions to legal problems.<\/p>\n

What changes have you seen in the legal job market? <\/strong>
\nWith the current economy, the competition for jobs is heightened.\u00a0It\u2019s a buyer\u2019s market right now.\u00a0My office recently advertised for four openings and we received dozens of applications.<\/p>\n

What advice would you have for students interested in a career in law? \u00a0What should they be doing now? <\/strong>
\nTake college classes that encourage you to think critically and analytically. Those skills will help you to identify problems (\u201cissue spotting\u201d) and develop realistic solutions, which are important aspects of a lawyer\u2019s job.\u00a0Also, learn to write clearly and concisely. Lawyers do a lot of writing, and unfortunately many lawyers do not write well.<\/p>\n

In addition, don\u2019t be afraid to work for a few years before you go to law school. Not only may you be able to save some money toward law school, but you\u2019ll have the benefit of experience in the \u201creal world\u201d before you return to academia.\u00a0Admittedly, I may be partial to this approach because I worked for five years between UVM and law school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Whitted \u201974 Deputy Chief, District Court Litigation Division, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration and Customs Enforcement United States Government, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Williston, VT Major: Political Science What type of law do you practice and how did you choose that? I\u2019ve practiced civil law for my entire … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “World of Work: Scott Whitted \u201974, Deputy Chief, District Court Litigation Division, U.S. Department of Homeland Security”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":832,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127021,129271,1,130801],"tags":[116804,33374,131170,5702,131420,131800,132056,53474,133459,603,136936,528,138821],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-exploration","category-helpful-resources","category-uncategorized","category-world-of-work","tag-advice","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-profile","tag-burlington","tag-career","tag-career-connection","tag-career-path","tag-experience","tag-federal-government","tag-how-to","tag-pre-law","tag-tips","tag-world-of-work","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"career","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/author\/career\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/832"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2654,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/2654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}