Pros
Decent health insurance. Paid holidays. Some clients are appreciative of your work.
Cons
There is no work-life balance. They haven't heard of that here. You will be expected to work through lunch and after 5. There is no working from home and flex time is up to the arbitrary discretion of your supervisor, there is no organization-wide policy or request process. There is no administrative support for staff attorneys. Be prepared to make all your own copies, draft all your own correspondence, and make all your own calls. A lot of your day as an attorney will be doing basic clerical work. The technology is terrible and outdated. The connections are slow, the case management software is obtuse, e-mail frequently goes down, and IT is entirely outsourced, there is no on-site IT support outside of the Atlanta office. Expect a caseload of 50-60 minimum. You better like nonsense restraining order hearings. Prepare to spend most of your time checking boxes in the case management system and filling out reports. Most of your clients will rightfully see you as part of the system that is screwing them, many are outright hostile even as you try to help them. You will bend over backwards for them and they will still file grievances against you for not returning their call soon enough. Most of the staff are just waiting it out until retirement. They refuse to step out of their comfort zone to innovate, improve processes, learn new technology, they are just looking busy for a couple more years. I was warned against working 'too fast' at my job here. Anyone with any promise elsewhere usually bounces out within 6 - 12 months. If you are interviewing, ask carefully what happened to your predecessor and where they are now. Management is reactive, rather than proactive, and lacks vision. Did something go wrong in one of the offices? Expect a blanket new policy to be announced that negatively affects all the offices. Many staff members have obvious mental illness and personality disorders you have to contend with. Lots of random breakdowns and erratic, grossly inappropriate behavior. This goes entirely unchecked because it's been completely normalized. If you expect normal boundaries and professionalism, you will be shocked. There are a few staff members who have problems with people based on their race, gender, and sexual orientation. I have heard co-workers complain about the 'LGBT agenda' and make derogatory comments about my race, age, and gender. I reported this to HR but asked them not to do anything about it out of fear of retaliation. You will be bullied by peers into joining the union which does nothing but also hold the organization back and take your dues. Very few employees actually join the union because it's so pointless. 15 or so unelected union members get to negotiate employment terms for everyone else every 3 years. There is no career advancement within the organization unless you move to Atlanta or wait for your regional office supervisor to retire. You are not here to provide civil legal services, you are here to fulfill requirements of grants, like a Federal contractor hired to clean an office building. It doesn't matter how good or groundbreaking your work is, meeting the minimum for the grant is all that matters.