Goodwin Procter Reviews

Pros

Excellent, hand-picked team. A spirit of generosity and collaboration.

Cons

Poor/outdated software applications for Billing, Records and Kronos (!???).

Advice to Senior Management

Update your applications, especially Billing software! It's time.

Pros

Nice people but they good ones leave quick.

Cons

Everyone can be replaced and they show it by their actions. HR caters to Partners in all respects. Good luck if you want a home life.

Advice to Senior Management

It wouldn't matter, they don't pay attention.

Pros

Quiet, left alone, The commute is great from New Jersey; the offices are in the NY Times Building. Prestigious firm.

Cons

pay is a bit less than market rate for similar work; contract attorneys are treated more as paralegals than lawyers by higher ups.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer pro-bono opportunities to contract attorneys while they are in between assignments or while computer systems are down. This is an untapped resource.

Pros

Attorneys are generally friendly and respectful. Co-workers are generally friendly, helpful and respectful. Working environment among your peers is without hostility and/or resentment. Very team-oriented environment.

Cons

Not good for secretaries. Treated more like a number than individuals. No real support for issues one may have. No perks, other than your basic benefits. Human Resources pretty much caters to the attorneys with little regard for the secretaries.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat the secretaries like valued employees of the firm. Address their issue(s) as well and allow them some of the same consideration as the attorneys without penalty. Offer some perks to the secretaries to make them valued and appreciated.

Pros

Quality of life is better than at most New York law firms.

Cons

Not a very social place. Very Boston centric. Not the same quality of work as top tier New York firms.

Advice to Senior Management

Layoffs could have been handled better.

Pros

Good mid-and upper-level administrative management. Some good advancement opportunities for non-secretarial support staff. Some stellar co-workers at all levels.

Cons

Administration was seriously understaffed even before the layoffs, particularly in satellite offices. Staff who survive layoffs are expected to take on unrealistic workloads. As a result, good administrative staff frequently leave for better opportunities, which kills morale. Management is frequently as overworked as everyone else, making it difficult for them to get perspective on just how messed-up these workloads are. As with many large firms, partners who mistreat associates and staff are, for the most part, tolerated.

Advice to Senior Management

Big firms are used to squeezing associates, but administrative staff don't have the same willingness to put up with awful working conditions. Staff pressured to work unreported overtime will become a legal liability for the firm, and top-level management needs to get involved: HR can only do so much.

Pros

Goodwin generally has good benefits and decent pay. The attorneys there are generally good people and are professional. There are hardly any difficult partners, although the heads of the groups tend to be tough on associates. Generally, a good place to start your legal career because Goodwin offers good training.

Cons

Goodwin recently implemented a new pay system for associates named "banding." Instead of being paid by class year, associates will be in "bands" and the salary for each person will be different. Therefore, it will be really hard to determine how well you are getting paid compared to others in your group, as the ranges will probably not be disclosed. Goodwin is not known for being open about bonuses. Billable hour requirements have gone up and pro bono hours are no longer encouraged (as associates are only allowed to count 150 hours of pro bono work to their billable requirements). Recently, lots of junior partners have been terminated, so the chances of making junior parner are slimmer than ever, due to cost-cutting efforts. The equity partners don't seem to want to share the pie.

Advice to Senior Management

Management seems a bit out of touch with what concerns the associates. It seems that there is a power struggle between the "old guard" and the "newcomers." In some of the groups, the partners are fighting for power and even fight over associates. It is unclear where Goodwin is going.

Pros

Standard pros associated with large law firms:
Cool fellow associates
Many opportunities to travel between the various offices
Nice offices

Cons

Myopic leadership
Disregard for associate concerns or lifestyle
Two faced in many associate "work life" regards, such as claiming to have low billable hours but then expecting hours much higher than the "minimum"
Etc Etc Etc

Advice to Senior Management

Start respecting the associate ranks more, and they'll in turn give you a better return on your investment. Also, stop pretending to be top tier since we all know it's a second tier firm

Pros

Fantastic people/culture with a good balance between work and personal time. There is also a vibrant social life in the office which is greatly facilitated by the lack of snooty and otherwise holier-than-thou attorneys which can be fairly commonplace in large corporate firms. The Real Estate practice is very highly regarded and the firm is expanding at an extraordinary pace.

Cons

It's Boston so the compensation levels are not the same as New York and the extent to which you're likely to pick up huge multinational clients with complex legal needs, while possible, is substantially decreased. This is offset, however, by smaller startups from the BioTech and Life Science mecca of Cambridge if you are interested in that area of law.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep it up. The expansion and branding initiatives have been a big boost to employees.