Pros

Great place to work, good work/life balance. Supportive and encouraging management, who genuinely care about your career development.

Cons

Promotions/raises sometimes doled out unfairly, benefits could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within instead of recruiting new talent, and raise compensation/benefits to what peer firms are providing.

Pros

Shearman has a cohesive environment where people are nice to one another and there does not seem to be much competition among administrative staff. The mid-management is wonderful. They ensure that work/life balance is met and respected.

Cons

The firm has difficulty acknowledging its problems. They probably acknowledge it on the level of managing partner but the message never gets to the rest of us. They think that we don't notice that numbers of attorneys have been quietly asked to leave or that we assume it is because they weren't good lawyers. Why not just admit that the economy has left the firm in a bad spot? By not being honest with their staff, they insult us.

Advice to Senior Management

Again, be honest. Don't tell us that it is a difficut time. We know that - tell us why partners are still taking home the amount of money but the rest of us have to take cuts.

Pros

They have an excellent pension plan for now.

Cons

There is a lot of dead wood that the firm could get rid of.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop letting people get away with being late and absent. Management is to lenient with administrative staff.

Pros

When you decide to work at a law firm--no matter what position--you are going to work hard/long hours. That being said, Shearman & Sterling really makes the best of it. The work will be interesting and you will get responsibilities right off the bat. I find that the people I have worked have all been great--wonderful to learn from, eager to explain things and always willing to answer questions. What more can you ask for when you are just starting out? Vacation time is also respected. This is something that probably can not be said about most firms. If you book a ticket/have weekend plans to go away, the people you are working for will not have a problem with it (if it is cleared in advance) and you will generally be left alone while on your trip.

Cons

The downsides of working at S&S are probably pretty similar to the downsides of working at any law firm. You will have long hours and a lot will be expected of you all of the time. Working hard isn't really a downside I guess, but sometimes it would be nice to work a few less hours in a week.

Advice to Senior Management

Even though times are lean...there is still a lot of work coming in and we are a bit short staffed.

Pros

I feel that Shearman and Sterling has a nice compensation pacakage, as well as on the job perks, along with a pretty good 401k. They make an effort to make their employees happy by having on the job dinning and mixers after work to help people get to know each other better. The company also makes a pretty good effort to work on Pro Bono projects that give back to the community at large. Having your own office is a plus as well. None of that working in cubes crap that you get at some of the other firms in New York City.

Cons

Micromangement from those who aren't qualified. At least in the paralegal department. I find that the powers that be are a little power happy with the amount of responsibility they have. It makes for a pretty divided group. Some times you wonder why am I working here? I found that the people in HR are the typical type of people who you never got a long with at any point in your life. It is almost like they have waited their whole life to get to be in HR just so they can be an ass to you now that they've made it.

Advice to Senior Management

Restructure.