Citizens Disability Reviews

- They hire desperate law grads fresh out of school so that they don't realize the horrible situation they're in, then have them post stuff on Glassdoor like "long hours seem normal for attorneys", leaving out the fact that attorneys who work this much either 1) earn twice as much or 2) gain useful experience or 3) work at places with decent reputations where they are given respect. - They tout values of providing excellent representation to clients, then force case handlers to get through as many cases per week as possible (usually 5 or 6), giving the attorney insufficient time to do really good work on each case, even when working 60+ hour weeks (at $45k no less). - There is little opportunity for advancement, and raises are doled out not for hard work but for volume of work. Alternatively, if you work your way into their Boys' Club, you might be able to squeeze an additional couple thousand out of them. - For the first 4 months or so you learn quite a lot and there is a steep curve. However, after that you just do the same stuff week after week, day after day, never gaining any more skills, let alone skills that would transfer to other work. Even SSDI firms don't want CD attorneys because we are taught bad habits. - Team leaders are generally nice and well-meaning. However, you will constantly be micro-managed and berated by principals and management. They will threaten you, making it seem like you can't handle work as an attorney, when in reality they have unrealistic demands which they know they could not handle themselves if put in your position. You will be subject to the casual racism and sexism of management, who are essentially grown-up school yard bullies. They will refer to you with pejorative names like "dude" or "sweetie", distracting from their entitled attitude. As stated above, they operate as a Boys' Club, an inner circle of old white men doing shooters and smoking cigars, crushing the souls of hard-working 20-somethings while "operating" a company that exists in what is essentially an ambiguity in legal ethics. - They provide "free" lunch from the cafe downstairs and bi-weekly happy hours for attorneys. 1) The lunch is barely edible, and employees only eat it because they are paid too little not to. 2) Don't be fooled by these weak attempts to placate you, they probably gain more from providing this lunch than you do. Plenty of companies provide free lunch and happy hours to employees, but most companies don't treat you like a stray dog begging for scraps. In sum, YOU CAN DO BETTER. This company takes advantage of well-meaning young lawyers, exploiting their desire to help disabled clients and gain skills to pad their own pockets. Unless you are really really desperate for a paycheck, keep looking for another job!

The business model is based on acquisition of clients without regard to the strength of their cases. The nature of this work requires volume and has tight margins. The company's model means that a lower quality of case is accepted; once that happens, there is nearly no way to drop a weak case. This results in money waste and money lost. When money gets lost, the blame trickle downs to the associates, who are then told to win more cases, but have no discretion in what cases they are assigned. When outcomes are not favorable enough (and no one knows what an acceptable win rate is), attorneys get bullied. Furthermore, the data on which the win rates are based focus on small time periods rather than larger trends, and making them generally meaningless. Attorneys are expected to work long hours for low pay. The percentage of administrative tasks is over 30% which is not only a waste of resources, but takes time away from effective advocacy. Morale is abysmal and upper management either does notice or does not care. The people who happen do well are part of the Boys' Club; sexism is rampant. (E.g., the "Jetsetting Attorney" review featured above was authored by one of those men; though he is listed as a "former employee," he never left.) If you make suggestions for improvements or express any dissatisfaction, your work will likely be micro managed even more. The managing partner also likes to call people out by name in groups of employees, which is unprofessional at best and outright hostile at worst. There is a huge lack of transparency insofar as raises and promotions are given or how work is evaluated.