-If you care about culture I would avoid this firm entirely. The culture is extremely cliquey and that is the only way to move up in your career at Freed. If you are not "buddy buddy" with a specific manager/partner then you will not have a future at Freed. The employees who work hard are rewarded with more work until they eventually choose to leave the firm. This has left Freed with very unqualified management.
-There is little to no flexibility once you are placed on a specific client - you are now stuck on that job for your career. Freed used to have great training but the woman in charge of that is no longer with the firm and the level of training has decreased dramatically ever since. There is no consistent training at Freed, every manager has their own style and preference and this leaves the lower level staff with a large gap of knowledge and understanding of the firm's "best practices."
-At the end of the day, all the firm cares about are billable hours and the fact that they are one of the top 100 firms in the country. We get it, you have the size, but you don't have the culture. If you put in more hours than your peer you will instantly have the advantage over them. The culture is a competition amongst your peers. It doesn't matter how well you can talk to a person or work well on a team, as long you get your billable hours then you will get promoted. This is how management has gotten to be unqualified.
-Don't even get me started on the issues with HR. HR acts like they control the entire firm. There is a lot of pressure put on employees to never do anything to upset them or else they will certainly fire you. Emails are sent on a weekly basis with the next causality. They are nice to your face, but lead the gossip behind your back which has created such a terrible work environment. This is a culture that is based on fear and gossip - get out while you can. The grass is greener on the other side - but Freed would never admit that.
