legal assistant

counsel

associate attorney

associate

senior manager

Foley & Lardner LLP

I worked within a very supportive organizational culture where personal growth and expression were encouraged.  Ample opportunities were available to expand one's skills and knowledge through our online computer learning system, in house training and support for outside learning. My computer skills grew continuously through the Firm's focus and application of the most up-to-date technology.  Through my involvement with professional groups and organizations, as well as participation in committees, my professional knowledge and skills continuously expanded.

My daily responsibilities varied greatly through the numerous areas under my oversight.  From managing the individuals in two departments for a time, to conducting management training, to managing the onboarding process, to consulting with individuals and overseeing wellness events, there was never a boring moment.

The most challenging part of my job was managing the need to do and grow more without compromising successful programs.  This always involved delegation and additional training for other individuals.

The Firm encouraged and demonstrated a sense of value and appreciation for each individual. I enjoyed participating in the management role toward achieving these goals and equally enjoyed the appreciation shown to me as an individual.  Individual views and ideas were heard and ground roots committees were involved in creating great place to work.

I worked with some of the brightest and most stimulating professionals in the Legal and Human Resources fields and made many lifelong friends.

I’m going to get straight to it. The associates/partners are ok just like any other law firm. There is no yelling nor do I see nearly as many temper tantrums from the attorneys as you may find at other law firms. A few have their moments but they should be retiring soon (fingers crossed). Management is to be expected for a law firm. You’ll find them walking around not having a clue what we actually do while pretending to care. The paralegals and assistants are overworked and not provided the support that is actually need. Expect to support 5+ attorneys with large portfolios. Given about 50-60hours of work to be completed in 40hours each week then told not to work overtime. I’m not joking or exaggerating here. People with no work life balance crying and counting the days until retirement in the workplace…it’s very sad. Expect to be listened to but not heard. Expect training completely unrelated to what you will actually be doing. Expect to work across practice groups regardless of speciality or position you were hired to work.  Also, there will be no remote/hybrid opportunities. Benefits are great for singles and families. They do offer social opportunities if you are interested in “getting to know” other staff. Personally, I would rather have a larger bonus or raise than be forced to participate in firm events that I don’t want to attend. They do offer average bonuses and a cost of living raise each year.  Overall, I’ve worked in environments worse than this so if you can stomach the stress why not?  Good luck 

This was a fun job as far as job duties and the direct people that I worked with.  Everyday job duties consisted of inventory control, event planning and management, court runs and mail and scanning/copying for motions etc.  The training was below   satisfactory and one was put in a position with very little support from some co-workers for help or assistance.  There were at times situations of co-workers from other departments literally setting one up for failure.  Not a team playing environment.  The attorneys and legal secretaries always were friendly and helpful. The management was strict and at times a little harsh with their words, and had a reputation of managing by fear rather than respect.  However they did have an open door policy and I always found them to be extremely professional and expect nothing less than your best.  I respected them and ultimately liked this job, but there was not a lot of room for advancement at my location.

Could be a great place to work but for a minority lawyer with experience, it fell short in many ways but especially on compensation and promotion opportunities. Even with your own clients and fully independent, responsible capacity for rainmaking, and with a lot of lip service paid to diversity (and a lot of time dedicated to it) billable hours are all that matters and people of color and lgbtq attorneys are mostly not partners or in top tiers of compensation.  The problem is in the top leadership being well intentioned nmbut mistly old white men stuck on a certain model and way of doing things.  But I’d still choose this firm over many others. There are few truly malignant, mean personalities here, though The home office in Milwaukee is much more conservative and stodgy than it should be. It’s an office by office thing. 

I worked in the Boston office of this firm.

I had over 8 years of experience and I was nothing but a desk monkey.  I was bored all the time, the attorneys I worked with were rude and unappreciative.  The partner I worked for would literally throw paper at me and give me projects at the last minute they were due and expected me to stay late to do them while all day/week long I sat around and did nothing but remind him that certain things were due.  He had no respect for my personal time and I was "required" to stay per management.

Salary was good and location was excellent but that was about it.  Attorneys you work with were all jerks and had no respect for the staff there.  Attorneys you would work with on a daily basis wouldn't even look acknowledge your presence if you walked by them on the street or saw them after work at a bar.  

Management was horrendous. I was lied to numerous times.  They started interviewing for my position while I was still working there and then lied to me about it.

My scheduled retirement date is July 2, 2015.  Having spent my entire career at Foley & Lardner LLP, both in our Milwaukee, WI, and Tampa, FL, offices, I learned (perhaps most significantly) about life in the real world.  Yes, I acquired a great many technical and other skills over the years, including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office applications, and honed my intellectual skills to accommodate the needs of our clients.  My "people skills" increased as I interfaced with various clients under different circumstances.  I learned to prioritize, what is important and, perhaps, what is not; and to multi-task since I was frequently called upon to perform several divergent tasks contemporaneously under restrictive deadlines.  I loved everything about my job and my career, yet I knew internally that the time had come to apply for early retirement and move on with the rest of my life.

A typical day at Foley & Lardner consist of turning on my computer, checking my daily dockets to see what's due for the day.  

Once I've gotten my docket straight with all three of my attorneys, I would send an email to each one letting them know what's due for the day and any overdues.  

I'll then start with my work, prioritizing my work from the most critical to the most minimal.  

For the duration of the day, I'll work on my responses, shells, expenses, time entry, if any, the filing of my responses, etc. with the USPTO, along with any and all other work to completion, becoming multi tasked if necessary, and also able to work independently with excellence assurance, confidence and comfortability.  

The most enjoyable part of my job is the team effort with the employees and the most hardest part of my job is the ability to pass work onto someone else, if need be.

The Partners I was hired to support were the greatest. I miss their humor and personalities. The management structure for paralegals in the Business Law section was a catastrophe. I "technically" reported to an individual out of Milwaukee that had never been a paralegal in her life and had zero experience in the legal field. I spent countless non-billable hours trying to educate her on all aspects of commercial real estate and laws governing such areas. I was given administrative tasks such as leading team meetings, spearheading file cleanup, etc., all of which were non-billable hours and never shared with the Partners I was hired to support. I was assigned tasks for attorneys from Miami to Ohio. Certainly not opposed to assisting however, these added tasks jeopardized our Orlando team meeting our deadlines. 

Foley is a great job for quick experience in various areas of technology. With over 100 software packages and various hardware, it is easy to grow yourself professionally.

Technology management is inexperienced and extremely disconnected from their staff. Ideas are elementary and will never listen to better ideas. Technology is behind and extremely slow moving. They acknowledge the bad, and never appreciate the good regardless of them saying "we notice". Regardless of how hard you work, everybody gets the same review and within a fraction of the same raise. Management follows quantity over quality.

1 star for awareness of employee health.

Upon arriving to work, the first order of the day was to check the calendars and emails to plan, prioritize and manage your time and workload assignments for the day, not including any emergency assignments the attorneys' might hand you.  This law firm focused on educating its employees in all  of the applications needed to produce quality, cost-effective work for the client. Therefore, all of the training was free and all were encouraged to participate in the training either online or in person.The hardest part of the job was the massive workload and yet it was manageable because our HR reps were fantastic and the people in all of our departments were great to work with.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Legal assistant 3 salaries reported	$68,333 per year
Counsel 3 salaries reported	$135,000 per year
Associate attorney 3 salaries reported	$241,667 per year
Associate 3 salaries reported	$211,667 per year
Senior manager 1 salary reported	$205,000 per year

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