legal assistant

paralegal

associate

litigation attorney

client specialist

Davis-Wright-Tremaine-LLP

DWT is flexible, supportive, friendly, and professional. I've worked at a lot of other big firms, including other big Seattle firms, but the people at DWT and the culture we create here -- in person or online -- keeps me here. Headhunters reach out to me at least once a week, and many are offering significantly more money, but I stay because there are things more money can't buy: 

* Reasonable work expectations
* Attorneys that are patient, professional, generous with their time, and genuinely good people whom I admire and respect
* Clients with interesting work, whom I can agree with politically and socially
* Offices that are comfortable and tools that are suitable for the task at hand
* A friendly, collegial culture
* My manager is a decent person who listens to my concerns when they arise, and does their best to mitigate what few issues come up.
* Benefits are excellent, pay is fair, bonuses are generous, overtime is available.

I'm proud to work here, proud of the work we do, proud to be associated with this firm.

The downside: Workflow is feast or famine.  Staff has to seek out work when we're low, and when the practice is busy, we can be overwhelmed by work coming from multiple offices, and attorneys we've never met. Work can snowball. It's also easy to get pigeon-holed into a narrow set of tasks: attorneys discover you're good at doing something and so you're always asked to do that one thing and never given the opportunity to expand the skillset. Getting out of that requires pushing back.

I was hired in the Portland Office as a paralegal.  They told me I would be doing work that I went to school for and was trained for. Instead they are only giving me assistant work I have never done before and criticizing me for mistakes.  Because of the corona virus I am only 1 of 3 people that work there in the building. I am not given proper training. Instead, their answer is to go watch videos to teach myself.
The personnel department is demeaning.  They call me a "problem" in their system because I don't know how to do what they want.
I know how to fill out legal forms, I know how to file motions, etc.  I don't know how to do billing or accounting.  They have a problem if I put a label on an envelope incorrectly when the mailing department doesn't have a problem.
They will not listen to what I want or need.  I was happy and excited to be here. It took 3 interviews to get in and they said they liked who I was and what I wanted and would help me in my career.
It's only been two months and I am so miserable, unhappy and walking on eggshells. I work in the Portland Immigration team and I feel so sad that this firm that says they are the top are instead so belittling and not wanting someone to succeed.  They have given me two weeks.  I have worked there by myself the entire corona virus time, and everyone else working remotely.  Now when the restrictions will be lifted, they will let me go. It's NOT right. It's NOT ok to be treated this way when I am being responsible and trying to train MYSELF!

I was excited to come work for Davis Wright Tremaine's patent group but my excitement was quickly replaced by disappointment a few weeks after I started.  The firm purports to be one of the "100 best workplaces for women", however this is probably only true for attorneys.  The legal assistants are overworked, many are so busy that they don't take bathroom breaks let alone lunch breaks.  We work in what I would describe as a "patent sweat shop" for lack of a more politically correct term. Production is the only thing that matters, at the expense of constant staff turnover.  Management does not seem concerned with how many people they burn through.  However, it does seem like the legal assistants in other groups are much happier.  My advice would be to avoid the patent group.  Other groups may be okay.

DWT is a big firm that has been around a long time. I believe they are doing their best to stay relevant in today's rapidly changing market, however, not without incident. As with many large, older firms, there is always a "changing of the guard" period to contend with. Many of the older lawyers are retiring, as are the antiquated "lifer's" of firms who have stayed 20+ years. Sometimes, "lifer's" work their way up the ranks to become Manager's.This does not mean these people are actually good or effective at managing others, or have the requisite skills to lead a team through effective project management and or a willingness to work with employees to development career growth. DWT is a good firm that has a stellar reputation in the Seattle legal community. Management of the firm is decent, as are pay-rates and benefits.

DWT is a good place to work if you are a lawyer with great clients. It is a good place to work if you are a hard-working secretary who can handle the demands. It is not a great place to work if you are ambitious and would like to move up the ladder. It is not a great place to work if you have ideas on improving things that are out of the ordinary and challenging. It is not a great place to work if you look different. Do not go there if you want to learn and grow and lead teams. Go there if you want to work hard, follow the leader, and learn for yourself.

Not all parts of the law firm Are corrupt there are sections of the law firm that isn't corrupt. They rather take management's side of a story than the staff members' side if there's misconduct found toward higher-ups. They reward bad workers and overlook good workers. If you are a person of color it's hard to get a raise or promoted if you do great work.  There is a lot of favoritism at this law firm.  They have fired a large number of good workers to cover up the bad behavior of the bad workers they choose to keep. 

I had a very good work experience at Davis Wright. Management ensures that you are able to do your job efficiently as firm infrastructure is state-of-the-art and they only hired the best IT professionals. In the SF office there were two separately operating Intellectual Property groups (Electrical and Life Sciences), the electrical group has worked together for many years and despite that they are a bit analog, they really worked like a well-oiled machine. The life sciences group had a very rapid attrition rate, a bit of a revolving door. Overall, the firm was a great working experience. Great office manager and partner in charge.

I genuinely enjoyed working at this firm. The people were great, as was the work environment and atmosphere. I learned a different type of law, became more proficient with the search for key documents, the preparation of court filings and customer relations. The management was caring, helpful and available when I had questions. The hardest part of the job, was not getting too interested since the cases were typically fascinating. This too was the most enjoyable part of the temporary position I was filing. I loved the type of law and the cases the employment division of the firm dealt with.

I helped process patent applications and trademark applications and filed many prosecution and patent litigation documents with the USPTO.  There was a great deal of emphasis on accuracy.  The standards were very high.  The hardest part of the job was timeliness and making sure there were no errors made in the filing of the documents.

I worked with the sole trusts and estates partner in the New York office.  He is an excellent attorney, a very helpful and appreciative manage, and was great to work for.  He has a robust client roster and a very active estate planning practice.  We routinely juggled competing demands of client requests and government defined deadlines.  It was a challenge, and gave interest to the position.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Legal assistant 3 salaries reported	$71,000 per year
Paralegal 1 salary reported	$56.41 per hour
Associate 5 salaries reported	$217,000 per year
Litigation attorney 1 salary reported	$110 per hour
Client specialist 3 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour

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