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Buckley King > Reviews

2 matches | 1-2 displayed

Cleveland

Firm Culture: Poor to awful. The firm rewards mediocrity with automatic, small bonuses and raises; refuses to pay more to associates who work more hours and bring in more revenue; retains partners who neither make rain, nor actually bill any hours or keep any clients; almost never promotes from within; is burdened by a view of the business world roughly in keeping with 1961; treats staff as second-class citizens; and nevertheless believes itself to be on the verge of being the next Jones Day.

The culture is heavily dysfunctional, with the managing partner being essentially the only voting partner in the firm, and the business manager basically running every aspect of the firm on a day-to-day basis. Almost the entire partnership lives in fear of the business manager, largely because he speaks with the managing partner's authority, and the managing partner never wants to do anything about it. New business, new partners, and new opportunities are almost impossible to acquire because of the bureaucracy in the firm, an impressive feat of internal engineering whereby a firm of roughly fifty lawyers acts like GM negotiating with the UAW.

Every associate is aware that hard work isn't rewarded, and is further aware that not only is partnership profoundly unlikely, but that even if granted, it carries no weight, even at the equity level. Bonuses and raises for hard work are a joke. The energy commitment one sees from associates follows rationally.

Similarly, partners have no reason to bring in more business: Those without business continue to receive draws, and those who bring in business are entirely subject to a bottom line that is usually well into the red, and a distribution system that lies entirely in the mercurial whims of the managing partner.

The firm wanders out of the red and into the black roughly once every five years; it then promptly returns to its comfort zone of bright crimson, and begins wondering why third-year associates don't bring in more business.

The firm is essentially a collection of lawyers who practice law in physical proximity to one another. For some, it is a stepping-stone to the next job; for some, it is a refuge from an exploded job or from actual expectations; for most, it is where one goes to slowly die, if one is a lawyer who no longer really wishes to practice law.
Work & Hours: Depends on the office. Generally, the attorneys in the Ohio offices keep 9-5 hours, and work roughly seven of those hours, billing six. The Phoenix office produces higher hours. The Atlanta office generally produces 11-14 hour days, every day. The work tends to be meaningless and repetitive. When an interesting case comes in, attorneys descend on it en masse and overwork the file, resulting in significant write-offs and hurt feelings. Offices tend to horde interesting cases for fear that another office will royally screw up the file.
Salary & Benefits: Buckley King underpays the lowest-paying midsized insurance defense firms in every market in which it exists, even when it carries higher-paying work than those firms.

Bonuses are myths. The firm pays a bonus of $5,000 for 2100 hours billed, and $10,000 for 2300 hours billed. However, both of these bonuses are discretionary, except when they're not. If you earn one of these bonuses, count on not getting a raise. If you get a raise, count on not getting a bonus. If you get both a raise and a bonus, count on actually finding yourself farther from market than you were at your prior salary level.

Benefits are all based on an Ohio risk pool, to favor the Ohio offices; thus, only those plans that offer discounts for employees in healthier locations, and offer good access to services in Ohio, are offered. This makes Buckley King's benefits terrible both in actual quality, and in relative price. Generally, if you are outside Ohio, expect their benefit plan to be roughly three times as expensive as the next-most expensive employer-offered plan.
The Interview process: Deceptively good, which is part of why they manage to have people come in the revolving door in the first place.
Overall Impression: Frankly, if you want some place to work where you may or may not like everyone with whom you work; where you'll hate the work itself; where no one really expects more than bare competence; and where you'll know, at the end of the day, that as long as you don't do too good or too bad a job, you will never suffer, Buckley King is the place for you.

Working at Buckley King is like constantly living under a dark gray cloud, just thick enough to block out most of the sunlight, but never raining (other than a soft, unpleasant drizzle) and never breaking. If you savor that kind of environment, they're looking for you. Sorta. When they have time.

Cleveland

Firm Culture: Warm, friendly and smart people not only in the Cleveland office but in all their offices. Quality work and consistent, their attorneys can hit the ground running. Highly recommend them.
Work & Hours: 9-5 for staff; professionals work like any other firm depending on what they have going on.
Salary & Benefits: Competitive.
The Interview process: They take hiring the right people seriously.
Overall Impression: Impressive law firm with great credentials, friendly people who know how to get things done to their clients' satisfaction. Quality and value are sewn in every thread of this firm.

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