Fenwick & West Reviews

Pros

The people are fantastic. Everyone is kind and friendly, and even the most important partners take an interest in the associates. We also have really great tech clients and we are involved in some of the largest deals in the silicon valley.

Cons

Like every big law firm, the hours are very long, and you are "on-call" all the time. Since we are on number of clients/deals at any particular time, there is a lot of juggling involved.

Pros

Fenwick is a great and fun place to work. Employees are treated fairly, pay and benefits are good. They are on the leading edge of business technology and always looking to improve. The workload can be heavy at times, but is well balanced.

Cons

One could almost say good to a fault... The employees tend to stick around a long time, so there may not be a ton of room for advancement fresh ideas coming in.

Pros

Interesting and unobjectionable clients.
Creativity and client service are valued over sheer quantity of hours worked.
Employer's attention to professional development, diversity, and need for life outside of work.

Cons

Like any firm this size, there are occasionally very busy periods that demand a lot of accommodation from employees' families.

Pros

My co-workers are very warm and caring people. I am open to ask questions to my managers and get suggestions/advice/answers. That is completely different from the last firm, question for a question that ended up making me feel stupid. The benefits of kitchen things like milk, half & half, coffee (Peets and Starbucks), sodas always a plus. Beautiful building with great views of Mountain View, CA.

Working for an amazing and inspiring legal firm in the bay area. You can learn a lot from management, the work that you are involved in, and be inspired by management skills. Big clients, internationally involved, very green, and great people to share ideas and learn from everyone.

Cons

No growth opportunity yet in my department.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great work. I enjoyed my temp position and hope to be perm in the near future. Proud to work for Fenwick & West.

Pros

Fenwick rocks. It's a fun, supportive, caring place. Regardless of your position, you are valued as a mamber of the team. Upper management values diversity, and people are allowed and encouraged to be themselves. People at this law firm don't take themselves too seriously. I've been at other law firms where partners slammed doors and swore at the staff. Here, that doesn't happen. The Chairman won't allow it. We also don't have a million policies and rules for everything. People are expected to do their best, and they are trusted and given the latitude to make decisions and take risks. There is a lot of reward for doing so. We celebrate our successes every year at what we call State of the Firm. It's two hours of skits and performances and it features a wide range of people in the firm, from all our offices (San Francisco, Boise, Seattle and Mountain View). It's a highlight of the year. I've been here 11 years and I can't imagine going anywhere else. The firm recently won the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility, and we always win the Best Places to Work Award. No one here is ever surprised.

Cons

Sometimes the onsite gym is crowded. And sometimes there isn't enough food at the Friday "Beer's Here" happy hours. Seriously, sometimes there is a lot of pressure. Working in a busy law firm, for clients who have very high expectations, can take its toll. But the people I work with are supportive and understanding, and we care about one another. We pitch in and help one another. When someone is having a hard time there are a dozen people who jump in to help him/her. There is some anxiety right now because of the economy, and many companies are having layoffs, but I think that's everywhere, not just at Fenwick.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you're doing to build the firm and keep it strong. Continue to communicate with employees throughout the firm so we can all work toward achieving Fenwick's strategic goals.

Pros

The firm was a very good place to work. Things have changed and not for the better. To much favoritism for the younger staff and not for professionlism or competence.

Cons

The management is blind to what some employees do. Many employees are hard workers and not "in your face" social butterflies. Yet management seems to prefer the social butterflies to the hard workers. Especially the ones that brown nose them.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management should really stand back and take a good look at the managers they have in place and realize that some of them are not people persons and treat their staff with disdain and sometimes cruelly. Once a leopard always a leopard and the spots will never change. You can take a panther and tame it and domesticate it, but in reality it is still a panther and their inate being is to be a panther. Hopefully before the firm collapses because of this blindness, Senior management will wake up to the fact that management is letting go of some really good employees and keeping the young, thin, but very incompetent ones.