summer associate

associate

legal secretary

legal support assistant

service assistant

Jones Day

What is the best part of working at the company?
Jones Day is a well known firm with an excellent reputation.  The Firm has excellent benefits which were essential to me.  People make the environment in which you work and the working relationships I had at Jones Day were very important to me.  I stayed with Jones Day for 17 years, until I retired, which was the longest I worked for any other firm or company, which says quite a lot for the Firm. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working at Jones Day, or any good law firm, really, were the drop-dead deadlines.  You have to be able to handle incredible stress in order to work with the client and the lawyers involved to make what sometimes seemed like impossible deadlines in order to have documents filed timely with the various courts.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The environment was friendly and if you needed an extra pair of hands on a project, there always was someone willing to help out.    One thing that impressed me was the encouragement of the Firm for all lawyers to perform pro bono work.  There were always pro bono projects going on at Jones Day. Additionally, we had charitable projects happening year round, as with the Giving Tree, donating gifts and/or money so that others less fortunate would have gifts for Christmas, or in late summer, providing backpacks and school supplies for children in need before school began in the the fall.   

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day would begin with checking email and voicemail, checking in with the partner I supported and any associates I was working with, and prioritizing the day’s tasks.  If assistance was needed from others or from the service center, requests were made and assistance was lined up.  I would then work through what I had lined, at times putting all on hold for an emergency filing.  If time entry was due for the attorneys that I supported, that was usually first on the list.   When documents were prepared and being reviewed by attorneys, then I might work in some travel arrangements or prepare some expense reports.  Communication concerning ongoing projects was essential.

Through objective, tasks in my practice, such as extensive legal research and writing – both for domestic and international clients and issues, – I have gained a deep, substantive understanding of various areas of corporate/commercial law. In addition to such hard skills, however, I've also acquired intangible skill sets that I find to be true assets to a successful practice. Such skills include:

* Being and remaining flexible and well-organized;

* Working in a fast-paced environment;

* Turning around quality written work product in a short time-frame; 

* Acting as own triage manager when weighing and responding to various, unique requests by different partners and clients;

* Knowing when to escalate an issue and call for help and when to make a judgment call on my own;

* Managing a variety of attorneys, experts, and non-attorneys;

* Ensuring client compliance with state and federal regulations;

* Acting as the point of contact for various business units of the client as well as client's management - both domestically and globally;

* Advising clients regarding their contractual rights and obligations, as well as legal risks and business terms of various deals that they may be contemplating; and

* Performing, out of my own volition and as non-billable work, regular research and update inquires in order to stay up-to-date on legal/regulatory updates that could potentially affect any given client.

Jones Day is the best job in the world anyone could ever have.  They were phenomenal to me the entire 14 years I worked there.  I enjoyed the different opportunities to learn, the supportive environment and opportunity to learn new skills, the management there was always incredibly supportive to me.  They work very hard over at Jones Day which was perfect for me as I like to be busy.  If you come across an obstacle there, you have tremendous support to get the job done.  If you need to brush up on skills, they offer classes on line, or with a trainer.  There really was no way to not learn at Jones Day. I've worked in many different law firms and have even worked for the DOJ but Jones Day was the best job I ever had.  Had I not had a child with a catastrophic illness, I would have been a lifer!  But even in my resignation, they were wonderful and were sad to have to part ways with me.  They are truly professional, intelligent and fun over there.

Jones Day prides itself on its compensation structure. Unlike many of its peer firms, Jones Day does not pay a year-end or mid-year bonus and instead compensates associates entirely with salary. Salaries are not public and salaries are not determined by class-year. Instead, the firm compensates each associate (after their first year) differently based on the quality of their work and jurisdiction. The firm has long claimed that this "black box" compensation system breeds collegiality and that its associates—even though they are not paid a bonus—generally earn the same as or more than associates at other major firms. However, associates have claimed that they are under-compensated, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars, compared to their peers at other firms and that their compensation is much lower than what they were promised when they interviewed

Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your team. My participation here has made me proud to say I had a chance to work with some of the best colleagues I ever been involved with. You guys made it worth while coming in every day being part of the action. When I first arrived, I walked around the datacenter in awe because it was one that I have not been fortunate to part of during the improvement but after the fact. Each and everyone of you, should have something to take away that you made the datacenter what it is today.

Keep up the great attitudes, meet all your challenges as opportunities to grow further and farther. Its the drive in each and everyone of you guys what keeps you motivated to do what you do today and beyond. Good luck to you all!

Very intense office. Attorneys as well as secretaries are very focused.   

There is a gym on the premises which was convenient.  You had the opportunity to get a work out before or after hours or on your lunch hour.  There is a cafeteria within the building also retained by the company and has great hot and cold dishes.

While working at Jones Day most attorneys were nice and appreciative of your help.  Secretaries were polite for the most part but not very sociable.  Management was basic.  

I learned it is best to just get the job done correctly and in a timely fashion.  Best not to hesitate.

The environment at JD is very toxic, people are very clicky.  No team players, most people are in for a paycheck. If you ask for assistance, it seems people are always too busy to help out.  Management is poor, inexperienced.  

No staff meetings at all.  No additional training.  If you want to learn something new they tell you to go to their "intranet" and look at one of the online training videos.

IT assistance is horrible.  If you need immediate assistance trying to figure out something and you call the help desk which is in another State, good luck. Sometimes you get someone who actually helps out sometimes you just have to figure it out on your on.

No two days are the same.  There's always a new challenge and I enjoy this interaction.  It's a worldwide company and there's a lot of diversity. Management is very fair and always willing to support us in any way.  This is why I've lasted so long at this company.  It feels like an extension of my family.  My coworkers are very personable and attentive.  Hardest part of the job is having to multitask when there are 23 conference rooms on a given day.  Have to direct court reporters and clients diligently.

A typical day is full of adjustments to meet the needs of the staff and clients.  As a paralegal, my role primarily was to assist lawyers in managing several case files, and yet there was constant opportunities to learn ways to do things and from the experience of others.  Management assigned tasks that would fulfill the needs of the company and co-workers did what was necessary to meet the goals of the teams.  The hardest part would be when instructions are not clear making it difficult to hit the desired target, but reaching the goals of the firm was among the joys of each assignment.

Jones Day is one of the largest law firms in the world. Also, one of the most respected.  My days are kept very busy with 6+ attorneys to manage.  I love the people that I work with and the attorneys that I work directly for.  Unfortunately, the culture around here is not geared toward the Staff so morale is not great.  Over the years, we have gradually lost benefits and our salary raises have been minimum.  Most of the staff have been here for 10+ years but there really is no appreciation or gratitude shown to us.  For the most part, all staff are great employees and very good at their jobs.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Summer associate 61 salaries reported	$225,000 per year
Associate 14 salaries reported	$337,857 per year
Legal secretary 1 salary reported	$22.49 per hour
Legal support assistant 3 salaries reported	$55,000 per year
Service assistant 2 salaries reported	$57,000 per year

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