From here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=821308.
I could see five or so, but 90 seems like way too many.
Because the United States is a vast place, and as such five lawyers would have way too have of a caseload to work effectively. That’s why each of the 93 U.S. Attorneys are assigned districts to set up office and a staff of federal prosecutors so that they can focus on that particular area to prosecute federal lawbreakers.
The White House doesn’t have 90 attorneys. The attorneys in question worked for the Department of Justice, and each worked in different districts spread across the nation.
The White House might have 90 people who happen to be attorneys working there, but that has nothing to do with what’s going on here.
US Attorneys are the chief prosecutors in each of the federal court districts. There are 90-some-odd federal districts, so you need one prosecutor for each one. These people work for the Department of Justice, not the White House.
What do you imagine the “five or so” would have as their responsibilities, and how would they deal with their caseloads?
Wikipedia says that “[a]s of April 2011, there were 1,225,452 licensed attorneys in the United States.”
That’s 93,177 lawyers against each Federal lawyer … that 93 seems a number a bit too low …
First of all, the vast majority of those 93,177 lawyers are not criminal defense attorneys. Secondly, every US Attorney has a staff of prosecutors and administrators to handle cases within their district. They don’t try every case themselves.
My mistake, I didn’t know the OP was specifically asking about Federal criminal prosecuting lawyers … I was taking into account civil attorneys as well who would also try cases against the USA …
And your point is excellent … there are 93 US District Attorneys who each have voluminous staffs including many many other lawyers to handle the ten’s of thousands of cases brought up in Federal Court … thus my point about being more than 93 lawyers working for the US Government …
Since the OP has been answered, all I can usefully add is this.
Nitpick: the proper title is “United States Attorney,” commonly shortened to “U.S. attorney” or (especially within the Department of Justice) “USA.”
There is no “U.S. district attorney.” Any specific one would be called, for example, “the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.” He or she would be in charge of “the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.” His or her assistant would be an “assistant U.S. attorney” or “AUSA.”
Just to be clear, there are 90-some U.S. attorneys because each one is in charge of federal prosecutions in one of the 90-plus federal judicial districts, each one of which also houses a U.S. district court (many districts have multiple divisions, especially if if they are large or have multiple population centers).
The White House should have at least 90 of everything. It wouldn’t be proper to have fewer.
As others have noted, the United States Attorneys work for the Department of Justice and prosecute federal court cases.
The White House Counsels Office are the lawyers who work for the White House. They advise the President and White House staff on legal matters. There are twenty-seven lawyers in the Counsels Office.