Sheeley Reviews

A company that is beset and plagued by poor management. Never have I come across a firm so tightly-run in the form of an authoritarian dictatorship. Despite numerous calls for change, requests for things like anonymous suggestion boxes - every idea is brushed under the rug or treated as an avenue for subversion by staff. Requests for vacation time or sick leave are treated as a joke - by way of example, an associate requested to go to an out-of-state event last year but had their employment threatened. Expectations are unrealistic with 200-hour monthly billing targets for attorneys during a pandemic and then treating staff as if they were "stealing from the firm" because they were unable to hit those targets amidst no in-person court appearances, depositions, or investigatory work. While the firm took Covid-19 relief payments last year, the head-partner schemed incessantly to fire and "furlough" staff who raised Covid-19 concerns or tread out of line. Survival at the firm is dependent on how well-liked you are by the head partner. Horrendous favoritism is shown in the form of vacations for select-staff or lack of repercussions for certain few not hitting billing targets. Everyone is out for themselves and firm cohesion is non-existent. Every partner in the firm has their own methods and with associates/staff sharing partners' cases, it is impossible to meet those expectations. Laughably, the partners claim they are very well-versed in nursing home law (the overriding majority of work at the firm) but refuse to teach associates/staff. Expect blame to be always passed on down from partner, to associate, to staff. Yet, in the face of all these issues, the firm manages to lure staff, associates, and partners in under the guise of better pay, work-from-home experience, and great work/life balance. Inherently, there is a culture of mistrust across the board at the firm where staff, attorneys, and partners cower at the whim of the head partner but also can't trust each other for fear of information making its way back to the head partner. Surefire way to be liked by the head partner is to bill incessantly, irrespective of quality of product. As other reviews have pointed out, staff, associate attorneys, and partners are treated poorly, not trained, and left to fend for themselves. Critical thinking isn't necessary for the work as so many of the cases have similar fact-patterns, opposing counsels are all well-known to each other, and the firm is effectively doing "busy" work. Unsurprisingly, staff and associate turnover is high (notably no repercussions for partners but some partners are definitely treated worse). Needlessly, staff, associates, and partners are made to suffer. Turn away dear unknown stranger, you have been warned!

Horrible place to work top-to-bottom. For starters, like most firms it is supposedly organized as a partnership, by inference means the multitude of partners should have a say in how the firm operates. In actuality, this firm operates with one person in charge where the "partners" tacitly agree with the chief and are unwilling to voice concerns or back subordinates or even each other. Partners are themselves put into tiers where clearly there is disparity in how one is treated unless you are one of the "good-old-boys" willing to drink hard/do as the chief says. The billable hours targets in normal non-covid times are high but ludicrous during a pandemic when the majority of billable hours from an insurance defense shop comes from in-person court appearances. The firm is also very top-heavy with partners outnumbering associates, who in turn outnumber the support staff. Associates are treated poorly or as glorified paralegals (they nominally have one paralegal) where the associates are not coached/taught anything substantively and the partners have the distinct habit of contradicting each other and crucially claiming that their way is the right way and must be applied to all cases in the firm. The associate turnover is high with the majority of associates working for the firm less than a year. Support staff are treated poorly. The firm received government loans during covid and then proceeded to "furlough" and fire staff at the first opportunity. Staff faced repercussions for having to shelter-at-home due to potential covid-risk. During the pandemic and when folks were required to be in the office, several persons in the firm tested positive for covid and the leadership of the firm did nothing to address the issue. Associates and staff were still expected to come into the office.