legal assistant

litigation attorney

associate attorney

accounts receivable clerk

litigation associate

McCarthy & Holthus, LLP

This company is very unethical in how it regards and treats its employees.  While the company has a strong regard for its clients and customers and knows how to retain clientele in an economy that does not favor companies that process foreclosures and bankruptcies, employees are seen as disposable.

They're always advertising as "company confidential" online for applicants- always. Not because they're growing, but because their 7 companies can never keep people around long enough to keep positions filed.

Case in point:  the managing partner of the company has said multiple times that employees should "be brief, be brilliant, and be gone."  The turnover is through the roof- most employees do not stay longer than a year.  The company welcomes and embraces the fact that it is a training ground for people to learn and leave.

The pay is extremely low.  Market analysis is never done, and the company says that there are no jobs identical to the ones at their firm, and thus what employees could be making elsewhere doesn't apply to them.  I was making $16 an hour, salaried, and finally accepted a position after 2 years that pays $55k.  My manager, before I left, told me that if it wasn't for what she'd taught me, I'd never be qualified for another job.  I had 7 years work experience before accepting the position at M&H.

I could go on an on, but won't... This is an awful place to work.  They're going through lay offs after promoting 4 or 5 people to partner.  The entire part-time night employees were laid off because that might save electricity if the business was closed after hours.  Never mind the fact that PT employees get no benefits so they cos the company close to nothing, and some FT employees work at night.  The whole thing was a moot point.

Attorneys own and run the business.  Not business men.  The value of employees, the cost of turnover, and a company's responsibility to provide for the people who keep them in operation is deemed frivolous and obsolete here, because they're so unique that they're exempt from the regular expectations that employees have.

HR is a joke there.  Management is a joke there.  You'll walk in the door needing to find a way out in a couple of months.

This was just a temporary internship, but so far here's what I've experienced.

A typical work day would be at a desk sorting through recorded documents and finding detailed information to see where each one goes as well as uploading them to a database for our clients.

I learned how to deal with the pressure of having to work in a fast paced environment and sensitive documents. I've also gained experience with a database and how to issue certain information that could help me when doing these kinds of tasks more swiftly in the future. 

The management works hard to keep things running fairly smoothly in the office and have no problem helping if you have an issue. The co-workers at the office are also very hardworking, but friendly. All of our jobs are codependent on each other. 

The hardest part was sorting through the documents swiftly, but carefully. One mistake can bring a lot of extra unnecessary work. 

The most enjoyable part is you get to shape your own day. If you have different projects you can work on what you want as long as you make your quota.

At the start of shift, one would open all needed programs and begin the work day.
Answer emails, requests, and phone calls from consumers and legal teams.

I learned about setting up hearings for different states and judges, as well as paying attention to detail on multiple documents and their needed programs.

Mangagement was there, if needed you could call upon them but the position required you to be a problem solver and self starter.

My coworkers were team based so we all worked in a collective to get through our daily work lists and whatever was left over at the end of the day, we all finished.

The hardest part of the job would be the constant changes to procedure for updated courts and personnel.
Making sure each new file was carefully looked over, checked, and double checked.

The most enjoyable part of the job was knowing that each file that was complete was a team effort.
Knowing that each one was done correct and being able to move onto the next one.

The best things about MH were my coworkers, flexible work schedule, and casual dress code. However, the workload was overwhelming and you felt more like a rubber stamp than a human being. Upper management was completely tone deaf and cared more about your numbers than work quality. The pay was tolerable but really did not justify the amount of work or stress. There was little training and mentorship,  so you did not feel like you ever grew professionally. Opportunities for advancement were none existent -- they gave special sounding titles but no additional compensation for the increased responsibilities. It is a decent place to start but not advisable for the long term. 

The job requires good attention to detail.  The work we do to support our financial clients and their customers is important and must be done right.  We have deadlines to meet and there is pressure that goes with this.  We do have good systematic and reporting tools, and my manager is always available to assist me when needed.  
I appreciate the support I get from my co-workers.
The challenging part of the job is the timelines and varying client requirements to manage.  


I recently started working in the Seattle office (March 13th was my start date) and unfortunately I was offered a government job but I decided to stay with M&H for a little longer (I start the govt job on April 30th). My current supervisor has been more than understanding and letting me take care of my personal matters due to this upcoming govt job. I am grateful and fortunate to have such an awesome supervisor. I will miss that team in Seattle, they are very friendly and outgoing. For those that are working in an office opposite of my situation, I am sorry. But I love the people in the Seattle office and I am going to miss them!

A typical day at work and what I learned

Provided legal documentation and reviewed bankruptcy letters.  Prepared and filed civil complaints, wage attachments and dismissals for delinquent accounts. Researched legal assignments for legal issues related to pending litigations and over looking and verifying funds for Chapter 13 plans and debtor’s personal financial balance sheets.  Read and compiled mortgage documentation for attorneys, scheduled hearing dates for bankruptcy cases and updated the client (Bank) with the hearing results.  Understanding of Loss Mitigation and Foreclosure processing and procedures

Depends on where you work. I worked in a department with supportive management, good work/life balance, and decent morale. Not all departments have good management, just like any company. Benefits are terrible. Pay is low for the industry. Overall a decent place to work in that you probably won't feel too stressed or go home crying every day. They've done a lot of research into how to make employees feel comfortable enough to stick around without paying them more or improving the benefits, so it's easy to get trapped there if you aren't motivated to leave.

The people here are so bad it makes it hard to focus on doing your job.  There are so many politics it is exhausting and feels like high school.  The worst part is that upper management are the people behaving this way, with the exception of a few.  They lie and undermine their own employees in very dishonest and unscrupulous ways, including in my own department.  The only enjoyable things are the casual dress code and some colleagues.  There were no other normal job perks except a very small (under $100) bonus maybe once a year.

Processing 8 motions for relief was challenging. I learned to use so many new programs, for me Adobe was the most useful. My original direct manager was difficult, but other than him the bankruptcy department management was good. The hardest part of the job was some personalities didn't work well together, but overall it was ok. There were lots of in office company functions and team building events. Lots of cross training.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Legal assistant 4 salaries reported	$23.97 per hour
Litigation attorney 4 salaries reported	$109,375 per year
Associate attorney 3 salaries reported	$107,500 per year
Accounts receivable clerk 1 salary reported	$22.00 per hour
Litigation associate 3 salaries reported	$22.33 per hour

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