Fragomen Employee Reviews about "work environment"

Pros

Unlimited amounts of overtime, average salary, decent benefits.

Cons

There are so many to list. First, let’s start with the actual work environment. The New midtown office, while very updated, has been poorly designed for the needs of employees. The paralegals are given a small work table to work on that doesn’t allow you to fit papers or properly organize yourself. There is no privacy - in fact, even senior partners share offices. This is very distracting as people are constantly walking past you as you are trying to concentrate on work. From what I have seen, the quality of experience that you will have here will largely depend on what team you are placed on. It seems that some teams do a decent job of delegating work among paralegals so that no one is staying too late. However, the team I was one, most people stayed well past 8pm every night. It wasn’t unheard of or unusual for people to be in the office past 10 pm. Also, take note that this is a corporate immigration law firm and the clients are all businesses. As such, the cases you will handle will not vary much; however, you will be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of the work you will be assigned. The paralegals here do ALL the work. The attorneys just oversee and sign off and also speak to HR reps. You will see the same types of cases on a daily basis, it is just that there will be large volume and enormous pressure to complete everything quickly. Take note that immigration law is highly technical, and even small mistakes can have major consequences. You, as an entry level assistant paralegal, will be held responsible if anything were to go wrong. I gave this place my all - regularly worked nearly 60 hours. What I got was disrespect and condescension from attorneys. The job caused me to have an emotional and mental breakdown. The money, while decent for a recent college grad, is not worth the amount of emotional stress that you will face. Good luck.

Pros

Prestigious firm, really great for CV

Cons

Poor work environment, overworked/underpaid, attorneys care at all about those who work under them. Very passive and toxic environment as poor training is blamed on the employee rather than the employer.

Pros

-Perks -Hired with minimum experience -Opportunities presented from being employed there -Compensation... until you’ve been employed there for a while -Care for your well-being from the hire ups -Generous PTO

Cons

-Unevenly distributed workloads -QUICK turnover -Complacency of senior employees -No on-site HR representative -Compensation for all AP employees in regards to workload -Improper training. There’s no way someone employed for only a week or two should be training a new employee -Praise and concern of lazy employees -After 6 months, it’s in your best interest to look for another opportunity -There is not a conducive work environment

Pros

They try to have there be an office culture, but it doesn't really work and feels very stilted.

Cons

The organization, training, and communication are terrible. I frequently got yelled at for not doing things that nobody told me to do or were never explained to me. The work environment felt totally toxic and I'm so grateful I got out. Low pay and long hours.