Gordon & Rees Reviews

3.2

52% would recommend to a friend

(383 total reviews)

Dion Cominos

57% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Gordon & Rees has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 383 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Gordon & Rees employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Legal industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

383 reviews
3.0
Nov 25, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great experience for junior lawyers because there's a lot of work to go around. Very junior lawyers can find themselves taking and defending important depositions and serving as second chairs at trial. Firm is flexible with respect to working from home because office space is at a premium.

Cons

Compensation is well below-market, turnover is high, benefits are lackluster, and the firm is "cheap." There are far too few associates. There are three rungs of partners: Office Partners (partners in name only for marketing purposes, and the vast majority), non-proprietary partners (non-equity), and proprietary partners (equity partners). Despite having over 1200 attorneys, there are fewer than 100 equity partners. As a result, opportunities for partnership advancement are limited. Because there are so many offices, culture really depends on a given office. Billing restrictions for insurance clients are terrible. A lot of travel isn't billable, internal meetings and communications relating to a case aren't billable, etc. Insurance carriers seem to want lawyers for pennies. My mechanic charges more.

1.0
Apr 21, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The work is challenging and fun. The clients are prestigious. The support staff is excellent, willing to go the extra mile. Work/Life balance is promoted. The San Francisco/Oakland Offices are easy in terms of commuting on either BART, ferry or car. Commuter cheques subsidize 1/3 of transportation expenses. Random cupcakes and Friday bagels.

Cons

PHENOMENAL COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES!! Retaliation, Sabotage, Gossiping Cliques, Inhumane treatment where some partner-track attorneys treat staff as expendable and worthless. Lack of middle management yields bad workflow and there is no buffer between attorney/staff working relationships. The managing office partners lack effective, collaborative leadership skills noted by the higher-than-normal turnover rate of associates, staff and other. Sub-standard technology with high-standard expectations - which means there's disjointedness with the powers that be (i.e..... management). 🍇 A Grapevine (back-stabbing) culture promoted by at least one of the office managing partners creates a permanent toxic culture similar to the White House with Pres. Donald von Trump. A fellow staffer even moved across the San Francisco Bay to the Oakland Office to escape the culture set by the office managing partner after that partner arbitrarily called a "behavior hearing" on a class of staff members that included the staffer. Billable hours are inflated due to frequent technology malfunctioning and frequent communication break downs: 90% of the communication is restricted to partners/associates -- meaning staff are sometimes last to receive key crucial communications for which legal staff(paralegals) vitally contribute. In some instances staff are vulnerable and held responsible for attorneys' miscommunications of those key crucial communications. This firm endorses a climate of attorney status being holier-than-thou. And staffers are subjected to professional cruelty and direct retaliation by the "holy." The proof is in the higher-than-normal turnover.

1.0
Nov 29, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some very nice, long-time staff, bagels and donuts on Fridays.

Cons

No overtime -- difficult when you receive work late in the day and are expected to complete it before leaving without working overtime. No communication -- you will be judged and blamed without a conversation even when you have asked questions and have received the wrong answers. Poor technology -- computers freeze and crash frequently, which means assignments take longer to complete and clients are being billed for this.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 383 Reviews

Glassdoor has 398 Gordon & Rees reviews submitted anonymously by Gordon & Rees employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Gordon & Rees is right for you.