Duane Morris Reviews

Office morale was depressing. Workloads were reassigned so often because of attorney insecurities and demeanors it was often difficult to build rapports. Ineffective employees were not held accountable and those with a great work ethic were overworked without additional compensation. Attorneys never planned their schedules efficiently and could care less about support staff getting home to see their own families (good thing we received OT). The attorney-to-Assistant ratio was often overwhelming where partners would literally fight for help.

Duane Morris either ignores or is ignorant to rampant morale issues that plague the major offices. Morale is poor because non-equity partner compensation is about half of what senior associates earn (when you include their bonus) at other law firms. Associate bonuses are exponentially below market and although the firm starts associate compensation close to market ($165k), annual increases are are not even close to market ($5k to $10k each year). The longer you stay at this firm the more money you will lose compared to colleagues at other big law firms. Firm's stated business model is to pay as little as possible to stay competitive within the middle market, notwithstanding that lower tier and regional firms pay significantly more.