Adler & Colvin

Advice to law firm management: Learn to accept and celebrate differences and get to know your associates as individuals. Be open to sexual minorities.

Pros: None except money

Cons: Inappropriate crossing of boundaries with employees, invading their privacy. This firm has been known to have partners show up at group social activities of former employees and make comments from the sidelines about their personal lives, about their dating and sex life, and about their choice of exercise activities. Some exercise activities and group socializing activities while off the clock are considered unacceptable by the firm, but no list of acceptable social activities is provided to employees. The partners make crude and demeaning comments to employees in the office and engage in surveillance of employee activities away from the office during off hours, and then make intimidating comments to those employees in the office. For example: "You really get around don't you?" ; "I'm going to find out what you did last night." ; "Some of you have a Peter Pan syndrome." ; "I'm going to a meat party, but not the kind of meat parties you go to." ; "You were seen at a house of ill repute."

The partners also lie about the associates and expect them to just go along with it.

Beware of promises made during interviews regarding path to partnership. They have been known to induce lawyers to move across the country under false pretenses regarding paths to partnership, and then change their policy to elongate that path.

There is a chronic shortage of sufficient available work to meet billable hours requirements for the amount of associates they employ. Getting one of the bigger projects that calls for large amounts of billable hours is a lucky break saved for the favorite associates while the less favored associates are left with scraps of tiny projects insufficient to meet monthly billable hours requirements. This is well known and obvious yet denied consistently in a sort of group fairytale.

If you don't like donuts or alcohol you will be judged negatively and considered antisocial. If you have a medical condition that requires you to go the gym frequently you will be negatively judged for focusing too much on your body.

Partners will make fun of your clothing choices behind your back.

There is no partner leading the firm. Instead the firm is lead by a non lawyer.

There is an unspoken prudishness whereby associates who are single and have active sex lives are punished. There is no clarity about how many sex partners an associate is allowed to have without facing punishment, but there apparently is some such number.

Partners to Avoid and Why: Ingrid and Eric because they are unable to stay calm when an associate corrects their error. These two also appear to exhibit homophobic bigotry if an employee doesn't fit the mold of acceptable homosexual model.

Current or former employee?: Former Employee

Last Year at Employer: 2019

Job type: Full time

Pros: 4.0 Current EmployeeGreat experienceParalegal in San Francisco, CA ProsNice people, good hours, interesting workConsStressful environment, competitive, bad incentive structure

Current or former employee?: Former Employee

Last Year at Employer: 2021

Job type: Full time