Shareholders are cheap (with the exception of a couple). They buy cover-ups (like bagels once a month, random little pizza parties, coffee and granola bars in the break room) to hide the fact that they're only paying you $16-$17 an hour. You come into this prestigious law firm every day and work with attorneys in helping represent clients, while a couple of blocks away a 16 year-old at McDonalds is making just as much, if not more than you do.
The shareholders do a great job at pretending like they care and address your concerns. During my time at GLP, a survey was issued where employees were able to answer questions and provide the shareholders with feedback regarding changes they would like to see in the firm. Many of the employees addressed the low pay. We then had a meeting a couple of weeks later to address the concerns that were brought up in the survey. The shareholders mentioned that employees were unsatisfied with the pay, and what did they do? They said that they will be getting rid of the cash bonuses (which were about $650 every trimester), and "up" everyone's pay by a whopping $1. Essentially, they did nothing to address the issue besides make it look like they did something.
Much of the staff and shareholders are so passive aggressive to the point where it can be ridiculous. You can be minding your business, a shareholder or staff member can approach you, you both can be having a normal every day conversation and everything can go smoothly, only for you to get to your desk and see an email from either them or the firm administrator about how they noticed you doing something wrong (during your exchange with them or from earlier that day). I found it somewhat hard to build trust this way.
Some of the shareholders will have power trips and choose to act illogically to fulfill these power trips. There was an instance where shareholder Heather Webb from the Burlington branch asked one of our receptionists in Seattle if they could pick up a client from Burlington (which is an hour and a half away from Downtown), and drive them to an appointment in Bellevue, and then drive them back to their home in Burlington. Why this is not only illogical but ridiculous, is because this client was working with the team in the Burlington branch, and the Burlington branch has their own company car. Our receptionist lived in West Seattle, and driving from Downtown Seattle to Burlington, only to drive back down south to Bellevue, and then back up to Burlington, and then back down to Seattle would have taken him at least six hours (with no traffic), when someone who lives and works in Burlington could have simply driven THEIR client to Bellevue and back, in what would have been half the time. This of course is one major example, but unfortunately, minor instances like these occurred daily.
They don't offer ORCA cards. Almost everyone I know who works at any firm, or even any company of this size in Downtown Seattle receives a company paid ORCA card. Not GLP though. They compensate you up to $100 a month for transportation, however if you are commuting from a different county, expect to pay at least an additional $70 after getting compensated to accommodate bus fairs.
Expect to often complete tasks outside of your job description, without being properly compensated for it. I was not a legal assistant, but knowing two other languages, I was often drafting letters for different legal teams in my native language. I also assisted attorneys in meeting with individuals who didn't speak good English, along with reaching out to them via phone and email to receive updates on their treatments, to even convincing at-fault parties to cooperate with our legal teams despite the language barrier. I was more than happy to help, however, spending hours on various tasks outside of my job description only to be rewarded with a $5 Starbucks gift card really depleted my morale and motivation at times.
I have many friends who work at different law firms, some personal injury, some criminal defense. I often got very jealous when I heard about how they were treated at their firms. From their pay, to their bonuses, to other miscellaneous features of their job. It's really a shame that a firm that generates so much income (Glassdoor puts GLP from 10-25 million a year) chooses to neglect their employees and chooses this embarrassingly cheap route.
