Dechert Reviews

I worked at Dechert full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great private office space; nice people; quiet; convenient cafeteria

Cons – Extended salary/bonus freeze not mentioned at time of hire and bizarre bonus calculation methodology; not enough support staff

Advice to Senior Management – Be up front during interviews as to the firm's policies and procedures - even the negative ones.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Dechert full-time for less than a year

Pros – Solid firm, some nice perks for staff and most attorneys respect hard-working staff.

Cons – This firm is a revolving door as far as staff retention. Pay scales are below market, hence the revolving door situation here. Administrative supervisors don't seem to listen to knowledge that a lot of current experienced admin staff bring to this firm, which adds to the constant openings in the admin staff pool.

Advice to Senior Management – If you hired an experienced, seasoned secretary from the Top 10 Legal Firms of this country, you might just try to look at their suggestions on how to improve the firm and bring Dechert into the 21st Century!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Dechert full-time for more than a year

Pros – The work was very high end, the people were incredibly smart and fun to work with

Cons – Lack of work at times

Advice to Senior Management – Be more flexible on rates

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Dechert

Pros – Good exposure to interesting deals, best of the best attorneys in class with top notch clients

Cons – Low pay compared to other law firms. Health benefits are terrible as they are forcing employees to take on a larger portion of their health care plan costs.

I have been working at Dechert

Pros – The support staff can really be great and I have been lucky enough to make some very long lasting friendships. The upper eschelons of the staff structure are a mixed bag though.

Cons – Everything is hidden and not transparent whatsoever, leading everyone to be ultra secretive about everything unnecessarily. Upper management only cares about themselves and play a grovelling game to heads of infrastructure. It's a sick depressing place to be right now.

Advice to Senior Management – Change radically. The system that is currently in place is not only obsolete, but classist and unfair. Everyone is miserable. The attitude "don't let the door hit you on the way out" is a disgusting way to conduct business.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Dechert

Pros – TGIT is a nice touch, most junior people who work there have good intentions. Office is very nicely designed, everything is new.

Cons – being laid off by a poorly run firm, who raised their rates to a top 5 firm while not providing commiserate service.

Advice to Senior Management – being laid off by a poorly run firm, who raised their rates to a top 5 firm while not providing commiserate service.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Dechert

Pros – Great flexibility and work community with good leadership opportunities

Cons – Long hours, but standard for the industry

Advice to Senior Management – N/A

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Dechert

Pros – Friendly staff. Intelligent and knowledgeable secretaries and paralegals. Nice office building in good location. Managing Partner treats employees with respect.

Cons – Poor support from corporate. Lack of consistency across offices. The bottom line seems to be more important than the employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Be upfront and honest with employees. Create standard practices across the offices. Hire knowledgeable managers who have something to teach their employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Dechert

Pros – Firm offers competitive salary levels.

Cons – Input from remote offices is often disregarded. Too much emphasis is put on who will blindly follow orders without question vs. who is capable, knowledgeable and willing to contribute in their area of expertise.

Advice to Senior Management – Administratively - hold long term employees responsible for their actions or lack thereof and listen to advise from remote offices.

I worked at Dechert

Pros – The staff, especially the old timers who have been at Dechert for decades and want to pass the baton of knowledge to new employees.

Cons – The attorneys receive very little substantive training and, more often than not, are conceited. If you are not an attorney, do not assume you will be treated decently as a human being. If you are lower on the hierarchy, your recommendations will not be listened to. Even if you've done the task at hand a million times and it's your boss' first time doing it.

For example, it took 1 senior attorney, 1 junior attorney, a paralegal working overtime AND a night time secretary working overtime to send out five (5) packages for shareholder approval. When the paralegal and secretary made suggestions on how to manage the logistics, they were dismissed. The paralegal had managed shareholder mailings with hundreds of shareholders before.

Most attorneys forget that staff is there to support them. That's staff's job - we don't want to be attorneys. We want to contribute to the work and not mistreated because attorneys assume they're the smartest people in the room.

Advice to Senior Management – Dechert took management out of the hands of supervisors who were on the ground and doing the work on a day-to-day basis. The new management doesn't necessarily have working knowledge of what is going on and are all the more power hungry because they're insecure about their lack of knowledge.

It might save money, but it's not very productive.