Deana Timberlake-Wiley This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Federal Jobs: Less Haste, More Filling

   www.law.com/cgi-bin/nwlink.cgi - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/3/2002   Last Visited: 1/3/2002

   Deana Timberlake-Wiley, trial attorney, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice: I'm with the Litigation I Section, where we do all the criminal work in the litigation section. We investigate and prosecute price fixing and bid rigging and customer allocation cases. I've been with the Antitrust Division for a little over four years now. I had been out for about three years when I applied.
   
   For our section, we're really looking at personality because we work as teams on many of our investigations. And you're working long hours sometimes, traveling with people, and you really want to like the people you're working with.
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: That's one of the things I've loved about working at the Antitrust Division. I've had tremendous opportunities there. Within a year I had already been in court multiple times. I was placed on a trial team the day I walked in the door, on a huge investigation -- one of the biggest investigations we've had. And those two lead attorneys ended up leaving, and I became the lead attorney on that case.
   
   I've done a detail at the U.S. Attorney's Office, a six-month detail in the Eastern District of Virginia, where I handled multiple trials.
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: I've found there's not the same hierarchy as there is at a private law firm, so if you want to do something and you let it be known and you're competent to do it, you're going to be able to do it.
   
   There are senior attorneys in our office, people who have been there 10 or 15 years, who have never been a lead attorney on an investigation. It's not something that they're interested in. Whereas there are more-junior attorneys who have been lead attorneys. There's not that senior partner/junior partner/associate [hierarchy]. We're all on one team, and if you want to do something, more than likely, eventually you're going to be given the opportunity to do it.
   
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: I think it depends on where you're working in the government. When I left my firm to come to the government, I took maybe a $3,000 pay cut, and within a year I was making more than what I made at the firm.
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: I think a GS-15, Step 1, starts at $90-something thousand. So that's great. Also, when you consider the hours that you're working -- yes, when you're going to trial or something, you're going to be putting in firm-type hours, but that's not consistent -- you can have a 9-to-5, 9-to-6 day.
   
   I have an 8-month-old son and one on the way, and it's going to be harder for me to be at a private firm and still see my children and my husband, like I can now. So the standard of living, I think, is excellent. I get to be a litigator, a criminal litigator, get the court time, do some traveling, but I also still get to be a mom and a wife.

2. 2. Federal Jobs: Less Haste, More Filling

   www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/App - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/3/2002   Last Visited: 1/5/2002

   Deana Timberlake-Wiley, trial attorney, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice: I'm with the Litigation I Section, where we do all the criminal work in the litigation section. We investigate and prosecute price fixing and bid rigging and customer allocation cases. I've been with the Antitrust Division for a little over four years now. I had been out for about three years when I applied.
   
   For our section, we're really looking at personality because we work as teams on many of our investigations. And you're working long hours sometimes, traveling with people, and you really want to like the people you're working with.
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: That's one of the things I've loved about working at the Antitrust Division. I've had tremendous opportunities there. Within a year I had already been in court multiple times. I was placed on a trial team the day I walked in the door, on a huge investigation -- one of the biggest investigations we've had. And those two lead attorneys ended up leaving, and I became the lead attorney on that case.
   
   I've done a detail at the U.S. Attorney's Office, a six-month detail in the Eastern District of Virginia, where I handled multiple trials.
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: I've found there's not the same hierarchy as there is at a private law firm, so if you want to do something and you let it be known and you're competent to do it, you're going to be able to do it.
   
   There are senior attorneys in our office, people who have been there 10 or 15 years, who have never been a lead attorney on an investigation. It's not something that they're interested in. Whereas there are more-junior attorneys who have been lead attorneys. There's not that senior partner/junior partner/associate [hierarchy]. We're all on one team, and if you want to do something, more than likely, eventually you're going to be given the opportunity to do it.
   
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: I think it depends on where you're working in the government. When I left my firm to come to the government, I took maybe a $3,000 pay cut, and within a year I was making more than what I made at the firm.
   ...
   Timberlake-Wiley: I think a GS-15, Step 1, starts at $90-something thousand. So that's great. Also, when you consider the hours that you're working -- yes, when you're going to trial or something, you're going to be putting in firm-type hours, but that's not consistent -- you can have a 9-to-5, 9-to-6 day.
   
   I have an 8-month-old son and one on the way, and it's going to be harder for me to be at a private firm and still see my children and my husband, like I can now. So the standard of living, I think, is excellent. I get to be a litigator, a criminal litigator, get the court time, do some traveling, but I also still get to be a mom and a wife.