DiCello Levitt Reviews

The firm doesn't have enough associates or paralegals to properly handle those cases and is top heavy with partners because it expanded too much too fast. The partners treat associates as expendable or fungible despite any unique skills. Success seems to be based on face time in the office because, despite having people located all over the nation, remote work is prohibited and frowned upon even in emergencies. A named partner bullies everyone with his terrible temper and drove all good staff to quit. Any promised focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion seemed more quota driven than values driven based on how junior women and other employees of color were neglected without clear paths for growth. Associates have been told to tone down their personalities or to laugh off sexual harassment. DL markets that it cares about people, but clearly only cares about prestige and profits.

In my opinion, DiCello Levitt is not what it advertises itself as. While the firm has great marketing tactics that promise opportunities to work on high profile, meaningful, feel-good cases with mentors who will encourage you to grow into a partner role, I haven’t found that to be true. For starters, the name partners insist on micromanaging every aspect of the firm, including all work product, firm culture, and any network connections that could generate new cases. In practice, this eliminates the control partners and other managers or department heads would generally have in most firm structures. This also means the firm completely lacks policies and transparency around various HR issues, compensation, and benefits. Employees are generally always at the whim of the name partners. There is no formal guidance on the vacation policy, sick leave, uniform evaluation procedures, compensation policy, and only very recently did they adopt a sexual harassment policy. As a result, compensation is also at the whim of the owners, and varies drastically between attorneys of the same experience level. For example, some inexperienced and new attorneys make just as much—or more—than attorneys that have been in practice for many years. Conversations around compensation are discouraged because comparison creates resentment. Bonuses have no noticeable connection to performance, so they are pretty unpredictable. Remote work is not allowed, and highly frowned upon even in emergency situations despite some attorneys at the firm being allowed to work fully remote. Attendance is taken daily via desk checks. Benefits, including healthcare, have been changed without notice. Because there is no HR department, the bad behavior of the boys club generally goes unchecked. Associates have been told to turn down their personalities and laugh off inappropriate comments from higher ups in order to keep the peace. There are often instances of macro- and micro aggressions that go unaddressed. Ultimately these issues, when taken together, make for a situation in which employees have no guide posts for success, partnership track, meaningful growth, or assistance navigating issues. When any issue is raised, management does not respond well to criticism and does not welcome or encourage open communication. The firm loves to say that these issues are growing pains, a result of a rapid expansion, and many of the issues attorneys and staff raise will be addressed with time. While that may be true, the current result is a partner-heavy, imposing environment in which fear and intimidation are used as motivational tactics for the limited number of associates the firm can retain. Overall, I would not recommend DiCello Levitt to someone who is looking for meaningful career growth.