Pros
The non-legal teams and support staff were the only reason the place functioned at all. The business services, admin, and operational staff were professional, kind, and far more considerate than leadership ever was. Genuinely excellent people, propping up a partnership that didn’t deserve them.
Cons
I came to Kennedys expecting mentorship, professional growth, and a partnership that understood it was leading people, not just billing them. Instead I got a toxic, politically-charged environment where the partners seemed to view the people beneath them as inconvenient line items rather than colleagues. The partners were some of the most inconsiderate people I’ve worked under. Decisions were made in back rooms, credit flowed upward and blame flowed down, and basic respect for the people doing the actual work was nowhere to be found. If you enjoy watching senior people play favorites, jockey for position, and treat office politics as a competitive sport, you’ll feel right at home. “Growth” was a word used in recruiting and never seen again. There was no meaningful development, no clear path forward, and no apparent interest in whether anyone progressed as long as the hours kept getting logged. Talented people were left to stagnate or quietly shown the door while the same dysfunction repeated on a loop. The longer you stay, the more you realize the toxicity isn’t an accident or a few bad apples; it’s baked into how the place operates from the top down. If you value your wellbeing, your career, or your sanity, look elsewhere. There are firms that will actually invest in you. This isn’t one of them.