By Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

JAY STREET — Attorneys from some of the city’s biggest firms were welcomed by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes at a small breakfast reception yesterday before beginning training for their new roles: as pro bono prosecutors.

The 35 attorneys who assembled, known as the “fellows,� are all part of the Kings County District Attorney’s Public Service Fellowship, which is being called the largest volunteer program the office has seen under D.A. Hynes.

These are, for the most part, first-year attorneys who were deferred from large firms that didn’t have the cash or workload to give new attorneys a full salary, due to the economic downturn. But firms like Dewey & LeBoeuf; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom offered monthly stipends to new attorneys who found public interest legal positions for a minimum of a year.

Many of these attorneys have found new homes working effectively pro bono at the innovative Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office while still being paid respectable salaries by their firms.

Before sending them off to begin the standard two-week training, D.A. Hynes introduced the incoming attorneys to his office’s philosophy of crime prevention and recidivism reduction, before giving them some words of advice and encouragement.

“For those of you interested in being the best lawyers you can be, you should do everything you can to push your way into trials,� D.A. Hynes told the assembled attorneys.

Thirty are deferred first-years; five are not fresh out of law school but are taking a year off from their firms. All are excited to get the hands-on trial experience that most junior associates aren’t privy to.CC There is always need for more hands in the various bureaus in the D.A.’s Office at 350 Jay St., and little trouble is expected in finding work for these enthusiastic new hires.

“It’s a win-win situation for the prosecutor’s office,� said Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters in Kings County Barry Kamins. “I expect that this group will be a wonderful addition to the resources of the D.A.’s office.�

For the firms, it’s also a positive situation. They are able to keep young attorneys in the firm, while assisting them with acquiring valuable new experience.

These attorneys will be treated just like brand-new hires at the D.A.’s office, which has about 500 assistant district attorneys.

Emily Dean, of Skadden Arps, began working at the D.A.’s office in May, where she was assigned to the “blue� trial zone, which prosecutes crimes committed in the Brooklyn Heights and Bay Ridge areas.

Considering a year off to do volunteer work after being furloughed, Dean said, “I definitely wanted to go to a New York D.A.’s office. Brooklyn responded right away.�

Dean said that as a junior associate, she didn’t get much trial experience. Working as a Brooklyn prosecutor, she said she was rapidly brought into a position of responsibility. It’s an opportunity to both contribute with public service, and to get more trial experience, Dean said.

Hynes, who returned to the D.A.’s office for the first time yesterday since his heart surgery earlier this summer, and is expected to return to a full schedule in October, made some light-hearted jokes during the breakfast.

He told the lawyers, to laughter, that if they’d stayed where they were, “they’d have a salary I can only dream of, but they’d be bored out of their minds.�

But who knows? Maybe some of these attorneys will end up sticking around at the D.A.’s office.

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