After the JAG Corps: Navigating Your Career Progression

Paige Ormiston, former Navy servicemember stationed in Italy, talks about transitioning to a civilian career, challenges of applying for jobs overseas, and the difficulties of scheduling remote job interviews. She also discusses different job roles within OGC and shares her experience of receiving multiple job offers.

In the 1980s and 1990s, environmental regulation began to have a significant impact on the Navy's ability to conduct operations, both at sea and ashore, resulting in the Navy JAG developing a small cadre of environmental law experts. Neil Sheehan was one of those and in the early 2000s was serving as the environmental law attorney for Commander, Pacific Fleet. This was his last position on active duty before transitioning to the Reserves. In this episode, Neil talks a little about the Navy's environmental law program, what he did with this experience after leaving the service, and how he ended up back with the U.S. Government, this time with the U.S. Coast Guard. Neil's LinkedIn profile is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-sheehan-a122865b/

In today's episode, Matt Reeder talks about his journey from the U.S. Marine Corps to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, to his recent transition to OnlyFans, where he now serves as Deputy General Counsel. Additionally, having served on a number of hiring panels while with Orrick, Matt talks about the importance of accurately describing what you have done in the military, and the importance of understanding what these terms mean to your audiences. He talks about the importance of networking, the advantages and disadvantages of having served in the military when it comes to applying to jobs outside of government, the business aspect of practicing law, and much more. Matt's LinkedIn profile is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-reeder/.

Passed over twice for promotion, Jeremy Burkhart was forced to make the jump to the civilian sector, where he ultimately landed at Holland and Knight, LLP. With the benefit of hindsight, Jeremy considers his non-selection "as the best thing that ever happened to me." Now also serving in the Army Reserves, Jeremy encourages judge advocates to think about life after the JAG Corps well in advance and not wait until you are approaching the exit ramp. Jeremy's LinkedIn profile is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-burkhart-83991815b/ while is firm biography can be found at https://www.hklaw.com/en/professionals/b/burkhart-jeremy-d.

Last week, I had the opportunity to catch up with Rob Passerello who retired last year from the Navy JAG Corps as a captain. Rob and I had talked about him passing along his experiences. Now, a year later, Rob finds himself pivoting to a second post-military job, proving again that your first one will not necessarily be the last one. Join me as we hear from one of the truly “good guys” of the JAG Corps. Rob’s information can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-passerello-leadership-dedication-focus.

Following his retirement from the Navy in 1998, where he had spent many years on the bench as a judge, Ken Krantz served as an Administrative Law Judge for three different Federal agencies. While Ken acknowledges his information about when he became an ALJ is a little dated, he nonetheless brings awareness to the opportunities that are out there for people who would like to serve as one after leaving the JAG Corps. In addition to providing a link to a fact sheet on ALJ put out by the Office of Personal Management (https://www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/administrative-law-judges/fact-sheet-administrative-law-judge-alj-positions-posted.pdf), Ken is open to connecting to interested lawyers via LinkedIn. His profile can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-krantz-06586530/.

Carson Honeycutt was a USMC Sergeant and CH-53 Crew Chief when he left the service after 5 years. He then went onto a sales job, where he failed. Undeterred, he has gone onto get his MBA and JD. In this episode, he passes along his lessons learned, which he uses to mentor people leaving the service. Carson’s LinkedIn profile is found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carhoney and his website is www.thezenveteran.com. (UPDATE: After prepping this episode for release, Carson received word that he had passed the bar exam. He was admitted to the Alaska bar this week.)

In this episode Immigration Judges Megan Jackler and Jennifer Peyton give an overview of life as Administrative Law Judges for Immigration matters, including the process for becoming one. Hint: if interested, a new posting on USAJOBS is only days away. Judge Jackler serves in the Navy Reserves, while Judge Peyton was in private practice before going to the bench.

Nik Mathews, U.S. Army veteran and Partner at Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe talks about his journey and the upcoming VLCF that Orrick sponsors. Nik's profile can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikmathews. VLCF information and registration available at https://www.veteranslegalcareerfair.com/

Bob Stern is a retired corporate counsel who now volunteers with Candorful, a non-profit organization that provides interview coaching for military transitioning to the civil sector. He also talks about why he believes military JAGs are well suited for work in the corporate world, and has served a mentor to a number of former judge advocates, including individuals previously interviewed on this podcast. Bob’s LinkedIn profile is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertstern1.