summer associate

legal assistant

intellectual property paralegal

specialist

litigation associate

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

If you were asking me to write this review 2 years ago, pre-merger with Drinker Biddle & Reath, I would tell you to work in Operations at Faegre Baker Daniels in a heartbeat. It was a great place to work and felt like a family. Now, post-merger and at Faegre Drinker, I would tell you to run far away. The difference in cultures between the two firms forced to combine is staggering, and the Operations employees (not the attorneys, of course not them!) are the ones who suffer as a result of no clear direction from management. 

The workloads across teams in your department will be uneven to an unfair degree. I knew of colleagues who had little to nothing to do every week, yet I was drowning every day. 

Managers have no idea what's going on and are too busy to care/do anything to help you, other than tell you to "find a solution." NOTE: I do think they genuinely cared about me as a person, but are not equipped for success in a managerial role at this firm. 

Problematic colleagues who the majority of staff can't stand, are not pleasant to work with, and flat out do not follow procedures will continue to get away with everything, even after attorneys complain. 

There is always some turnover in legal operations, but business development/marketing is losing employees at a RAPID pace, and if that doesn't tell you what you need to know, I don't know what does. 

I will note that I think they did a great job during COVID, adjusting their remote work policy and trying to keep as many employees there as possible. But now that the world is opening up and there are more options, I'd encourage you to look elsewhere for meaningful work. 


A continually growing firm (2 mergers since 2012) and one that expects its employees to keep up with vast number of changes that come about with mergers.  However, it fails to fairly compensate its employees for all of the newly added responsibilities and additional volume of work that comes with these changes.  While once a small, closely-knit law firm where one felt like "family," Faegre has become a large "corporate like" law firm.  Faegre works to incentivize its time billers (partners, associates) with substantial pay raises, enjoys boasting at annual meetings about its amazing annual profits, but fails to recognize its support staff and operations staff with the same type of recognition given its time billers (as in compensation).  You might get a free lunch or a complimentary pastry in the morning, but that doesn't pay the bills.  Sorry!

Run of the mill firm. Many employees have left for other firms in the last year and a half. 
Treatment is tiered. Laas on the bottom, attorneys on top - and that keeps going that way although employees have tried to cure that, it's been to no avail. 
Evaluation process is unfair and you get no say.   You will bust your butt every day and get nowhere.  Make up excuses not to pay you your money that was earned by you. No basis whatsoever. I was not able  to pay for some Christmas gifts this year.  important bills because of that! 
Met a fee good friends here though. They are all now at other firms.

Overall, I was happy with my job at the firm. I felt like a valuable member of my team, and important to the firm, but I hope the Board is happy enough with their AmLaw rankings to avoid any more mergers. I survived 3 major mergers, but a lot of my friends and colleagues did not.

I know, right? Who could’ve predicted a global pandemic would send us all home and accelerate the eventual layoffs that would happen as a result of the 2020 merger. The remaining support staff were left with an incredible amount of downright stressful work to make the merger go as smoothly as possible, and we were not fairly compensated for it. We were recognized and appreciated in many other ways, but not on our paystubs.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Many of the people are kind, particularly staff. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Marketing support is great so feel supported from client development efforts but silos from office to office make you feel out of the loop in important respects. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
People are nice, but silos thrive. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Hard to answer because for a lawyer in a law firm, there are no typical days.

Very busy work load; self-taught online courses (Excel, Styles, etc.) when the firm did away with formal class room training; management was seriously lacking and never seemed to keep all employees informed at the same time and/or given the same information, especially in areas where it directly impacted certain groups.  There was entirely too much office politics going on, both with co-workers and attorneys.  The hardest part of the job was trying to avoid the office gossip and office politics, and the feeling that they "were out to get you" no matter how hard you tried to do your job and stay out of the line of fire.

This was the first law firm I worked for and found it to be a very formal environment.  I am used to a culture that is centered around keeping employees happy and encouraging collaboration and team building.  This was not the case at FBD.  Everything is focused on the attorneys and their needs, not on anyone else, which is understandable since the attorneys are the breadwinners for the company.  However, if you want to keep good people across the board then you should also be good to the operations folks.  MMy manager was a micromanager and not a good leader. So glad I left.

My general experience has been that the firm only sees value in the hours associates bill, not other contributions they provide to the firm’s success. I have billed a crazy amount of hours annually and been rewarded with an even larger, unrealistic work load and no assistance with managing it. I have no one to delegate to. Associates are doing a lot of the work that LAAs used to do before the pandemic, while the firm states how great the hybrid work environment is for everyone. I work 7 days a week, holidays, all hours of the day, and the firm tells me I have work life balance. 

Working at Faegre Drinker in an operations role was as stressful as at any other AmLaw 100 firm, but my colleagues absolutely made up for it. While I can't speak for every department, mine was incredibly supportive and amicable, and helped me grow as a professional. Communications from attorneys was almost universally cordial as well, and often quite friendly depending on the individual. Great workplace for anyone on the administrative end who is okay with the intense, high stakes environment of Big Law.

This was the worst work experience I have ever had. It all depends on what lawyer you are assigned to. If you have someone reasonable, your quality of life can be decent. In my case, I was assigned to someone with a total lack of integrity and professionalism who routinely badmouthed and mocked colleagues publicly. I would not recommend this company given the lack of transparency and ethics. I also don't think pay and benefits are competitive relative to other law-firms.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Summer associate 17 salaries reported	$4,072 per month
Legal assistant 8 salaries reported	$34.87 per hour
Intellectual property paralegal 2 salaries reported	$38.66 per hour
Specialist 5 salaries reported	$42.71 per hour
Litigation associate 7 salaries reported	$249,643 per year

Working at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP: Company Overview and Reviews

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP Ratings

Popular jobs at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected