legal assistant

paralegal

associate

trademark paralegal

systems integration specialist

Duane Morris, LLP

Duane Morris, LLP was a wonderful place to work. You had to work hard, and the partners expected you to stay most nights and take the work seriously, but they paid you for everything you did and you were able to work all the hours you wanted and make a good living. We were like a family there. We looked out for each other and we took good care of our clients. Their cases were very important to all of us from partners to associates; from paralegals to legal assistants. We were all devoted to our clients.

A typical day for me was working on lots of tapes; doing revisions to documents; managing my partner's asbestos litigation database; filing documents with the court (sometimes 3-4 a day); communicating by phone with clients, other attorneys and experts.

At Duane Morris, I learned to work hard and put the client first. We would sometimes be in the office from 9:00 a.m. in the morning to 11:00 p.m. at night, every night. There was so much work to do, and the partners expected all of the staff to pitch in: attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants. We worked hard; helped each other; shared knowledge and information. I learned to work as a member of a team, and how to contribute to that team.

Management at Duane Morris was efficient and responsible. The firm was well managed and profitable. We never worried about anything.

My co-workers became good friends, and we are still friends today even though I no longer work there. We would still call each other and have lunch and such. I was there for almost 18 years, so I go back a long way with most of these people.

The hardest part of the job was the workload. We had so many asbestos cases along with the commercial litigation work. I not only had my regular work to do, but I had to manage my atttorney's asbestos database which contained thousands of plaintiffs all over the country. We would get boxes of complaints in every day. I would have to input the information into the database and get my other work done. I was in the office all day and half the night. Sometimes I didn't take lunch because something would come up that needed to be done right away, or I would take lunch at 3:30 p.m. or 4:00 p.m.

The most enjoyable part of the job was that the Firm provided us with everything we needed to be successful. They provided us with a help desk; we could take classes to learn new skills; we had a duplicating dept. to do our copying; we had a fax dept. to do our faxing; we had messengers to go to court for us. All we had to do was take care of our attorneys and the clients. Duane Morris was always a class act.

Firm has been purchased/absorbed into Duane Morris so it no longer exists. I went to work for a Partner in this firm who had over 9 secretaries in one year when I got the position. He was not difficult to work for other than he had "odd" hours he wanted to work. Once professional relationship established and parameters of work expectations established it was a wonderful job and I loved working at this firm. Problem was, many legal secreatries are not willing to establish parameters as they feel inferior to the attorneys. I have found once you explain your work hour parameters to an attorney they not only appreciate the honesty they are more than happy to establish guidelines to ensure proper notice is given when abnormal schedules are required.

A typical day at work, eating breakfast before I start, then putting files away. Sometimes opening mail for the whole department when my co-worker is on vacation. Filing papers into the client files. Eating lunch with friends. Getting files together and ready to send to storage, and entering them into computer to keep a record. More amd more filing. I learned how to purge files before sending transferring them back to the client or to another law firm thats going to take over the files. Most of my co-workers are great to work with. We get a long very well with each other. The hardest part is looking for a file when an attorney needs it and can't find it. The most enjoyable part of the job is everyone working together.

While being a global company our firm is very close knit and personal relationships are built across the nation.  The Office Services team retains a professional environment with a nice balance of casual atmosphere and team work.  

While assisting the Director of Office services daily with data entry, invoice management, and firm wide travel billing reconciliation I also assist with project managers might have such as excel sheet production for expenditures.  Taking on assisting with firm events and meetings is where my true passion lies.  Executing large receptions, luncheons for clients and meetings within the building are the highlights of my week.

A typical day would be getting in office earlier than attorneys in preparation for the rush of documents, priorities, phone calls, clients contacts and daily time reports.  I learned to always be flexible, moving from typing to make reservations. Management was very well and worked well with co-workers to complete work.  The hardest part of the job was to remember to stop to eat.  The most enjoyable part of the job was working with professionals who could stop and give a smile in the worst of situations.

I thought Duane Morris LLP was the best law firm for legal assistants. The Managing Partner would periodically come to NY from Philadelphia and call a meeting to thank us all for doing a good job. Merit increases were given to those who earned it. Just knowing you were appreciated made working there pleasurable. The most difficult part of the job was having to put in a certain amount of hours of paralegal work per month. Benefits were excellent and included a matching 401K plan and pension plan.

It has been may years since I worked at this firm and any review is really unhelpful.

I worked as a paralegal in the creditors' rights group, primarily drafting pleadings, motions, and briefs for cases, confessed and executed on judgments in the state and federal courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  I also performed document reviews and conducted legal research.  For several large bankruptcy cases, I was asked to monitor the dockets to make sure that events effecting our clients were known and handled by the appropriate counsel.

The firm is filled with self sufficient, capable and helpful attorneys willing to mentor and teach. The resources are great and tech integration is also strong. The work load is also manageable and people are understanding on availability. Management plays favorites, enforces policies differently for different people and the atmosphere in the office is dead. They introduced a new 4 day in the office a week policy for everyone but only the staff are forced to come in while the attorneys do not.

The staff morale was one of the worst that I have ever experienced.  There was little to no interaction among the staff mainly due to the office manager.  Never understood why legal assistants were not allowed to have two monitors considering we did the bulk of the work and the attorneys that were technologically challenged were afforded that luxury.  Also, our particular office was strongly urged not to take more than 5 PTO days off in a row.  

Really low morale and poor work environment. Frequent terminations with no logic given as to why. Poor pay, inflexible work schedule, no opportunities for working remotely, no opportunities for promotion or job growth. Really not many good things to say about them... Everyone that quit or got fired as moved on to bigger and better opportunities. Avoid this employer like the plague.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Legal assistant 5 salaries reported	$88,800 per year
Paralegal 3 salaries reported	$86,667 per year
Associate 3 salaries reported	$225,000 per year
Trademark paralegal 2 salaries reported	$96,250 per year
Systems integration specialist 1 salary reported	$82,268 per year

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