Brayton Purcell Reviews

Pros

Relaxed when it comes to dress. They offer some company wide activities.

Cons

They are typical for large firms with asking a lot out of people. They do put some pressure on people especially the attorneys.

Pros

Monthly gym reimbursement
Annual nonsmoking bonus
Comparable benefits
Very casual work environment
Day off credit for pro bono hours worked.
Lots of community/charity involvement.

Cons

If you don't like to work hard then this is probably not the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication would & could be very helpful.

Pros

-Monthly gym reimbursement of $70(single)/$110(family plan) (They pay you to go to the gym)
-Annual $2400 bonus for not smoking
-Great benefits for a single person
-Very casual work environment
-Very flexible with time off.
-Makeup time: You can re-arrange your hours for appts. (e.g. you work 10 hours on Monday because you need to leave 2 hours early on Tuesday and you don't want to use sick time.)
-They give you up to 2 hours of credit each month for volunteering in your community outside of work. You can cash the hours in for a day off. (e.g. you accrue 2 hours/month and after 4 months you get a paid day off.)
-Clean updated building.
-Lots of committees to participate in outside of normal duties (health committee, First Action Response Team-members get first aid/CPR/Defibrillator certifications for free)
-Cool people
-3-4 company parties each year with free food and booze

Cons

-Pay is pretty low for atty/paralegal rates in the Bay Area
-Recent layoffs (November 2011) have made the place pretty somber
-Many inefficient departments. Attorneys and Paralegals are left to create systems and manage workflow. Senior management was quick to cut overtime, freeze hiring, and commence layoffs, but almost no work has been done to overhaul operations.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve work conditions and pay for attorneys. Lower the required monthly billing hours and offer significant monthly bonuses for good work. This will result in lower turnover. Turnover is expensive and bad for morale. Miserable employees do miserable work. Hire an outside business consultant to analyze the way Brayton Purcell does business. This will save you a lot of money. Thanks for the job. I wasn't there long, but I made a lot of friends and fed my family.

Pros

Location. Casual dress code. There is a nice view of the bay if you are one of the few people working in a room with a window.

Cons

- Mean spirited culture starts at the very top. Demeaning comments to staff are considered motivational.
- The first question asked in all problem solving is "who gets the blame?"
- Level of Big Brother/micro-management is appalling. Partners and top level managers monitor everything: employee internet use, internal email content, length of breaks, even the number of emails printed in a month. If you are caught checking your cell phone (or, God forbid, texting) you will be formally reprimanded at a minimum.
- Greed at the top. Decisions seem to be invariably profit based as opposed to serving client or staff needs.
- Overly structured and compartmentalized. Often referred to as an assembly line. The result is staff leaving the firm with limited transferable skills.
- It would be unfair to say all employees view the firm negatively. But, the percentage that are openly dissatisfied is staggering. Partners/Management take the approach that, "If you don't like it you can work elsewhere." Turnover, particularly among attorneys, is overwhelming. This is clearly part of the business plan.

Advice to Senior Management

No point. Smartest Guys In The Room culture at the top. Nothing is going to change until the money dries up.

Pros

In Novato; Most co-workers very nice and cooperative.

Cons

Greed at the top. Total arrogance and disrespect for all employees. Undisclosed salary caps. Demand 4000 hrs per yer from attorneys. Force others to work long hours without paying overtime. Culture of blame and degregation.

Advice to Senior Management

None. Run like third world military dictatorship.

Pros

It's a job, if you have no other choice.
Benefits are OK, as long as you don't want to add a spouse or dependant care

Cons

Mangers are given dictator like powers.
Very little respect for employees.
HR's only role is to protect management
Layoffs are not unheard of

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees better, don't act like you're better than everyone. Listen to people's ideas, READ e-mails, don't just glance at them. Take responsibility for your own actions.

Pros

Pay is decent for the geographical location IF you are commuting from the north (but not if you are coming from the south). Benefits are about par. There are some very good people (attorneys and support staff) that work there, but often they aren't the ones that get to make decisions that matter. Non-Attorneys and non-management staff are all paid hourly, so you will get rewarded for your overtime (which you prob will be doing).

Cons

1. Management. While there are a few exceptions, the norm is for management to be very resistant to change/evolution. Law is slow to change is a cop-out - many successful firms (large and small) have come to terms with and embraced technology. Brayton Purcell has not - and management fights change worse than anyone. Departments are run very thin on human capital - mostly because there is a fear that if they (managers) ask for help then they must not be operating efficiently enough. This could not be further from the truth. The fear is rooted incompetence - it's easier to ask more from employee's and rule with an iron fist than look for a better way to do things.

2. Moral. I have never worked someplace where people collectively hated their jobs as much as they do here. There is a bond in the misery. Employee's don't trust their supervisors - some of which verbally berate their employees when they make a mistake. If employees were treated like people that felt like they had ownership in their stake of the process, instead of being treated like a replaceable object, things could improve.

3. Advancement. There is very little opportunity for advancement. People do move around departments in entry-level positions - but it's more lateral movement than upward. Want a shot at management? Forget it.

4. Skill development. Not really. Many positions only do a portion of what a similar position somewhere else would complete. This does 2 things. Makes you very proficient in your little niche, but keeps you from developing skills that could lead to another position elsewhere. There is a big discrepancy in employee career lengths - people are either there under 3 years or more than 7. Very very few in between for this exact reason.

5. Pay. For my role, I didn't feel that I was underpaid per se. But based on the limited scope of most positions, employees are paid just enough to stay, because they would have to take a pay cut almost anywhere else due to the lack of fully developed skill sets.

Advice to Senior Management

Advice:
1. Remove the dictator like power from managers. Employees that are doing the heavy lifting and see things their supervisors don't are not given a platform to voice their concerns. This would also make employees feel like they were more important/valuable and improve moral.
2. Address the fear. Staff feel like they are walking on eggshells and if they make a mistake will be reprimanded or fired. Not a healthy environment.
3. Reward hardwork. Due to lack of any kind of real reward system, people will work just hard enough to not get fired.
4. Objective reviews of managers/supervisors. Have subordinates evaluate their supervisors - and in a way where they can be honest without fear of retaliation. There is so little trust between employees and management that they (employees) are afraid they will lose their jobs if they criticize their supervisors. This lack of feedback has contributed to the current culture issues.

Pros

An associate attorney gets signficant depo and law and motion experience in a short amount of time when working here.

Cons

Quality of life is adversely affected by the hours one is expected to work. Unlike large law firms, which balance long work with high pay, Brayton Purcell, pays its attorneys very low salaries and expects them to work at least 55 hours a week. Turnover is very high which is fueled by a low salary and high hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay associates more and respect them a bit more and you'll get people who will stay longer than it takes to complete a cup of coffee.