Good Culture - Poor Management - Crap Billing - Associate Kennedys Employee Review

4.0
8 Apr 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Defense: Certain partners are laid back, helpful, and kind. Depends on the team. Ok work-life balance and benefits. Lots of fun firm events, and supportive co-workers. 30-40 case load (though higher if you're competent). Opportunities to work abroad (secondment program). In-house CLE opportunities. Nice Office Space. Hybrid work schedule.

Cons

Somewhat of a "gunner" culture among associates. Teams are siloed based on partners they work for. Poor communication with policies/procedures. Management puts up a front that they care about well-being and work-life balance but it's all b.s. - they only care about billing. Billing can be a nightmare and difficult to hit at times. Certain carriers cut like crazy and you're expected to do your own appeals (which takes a lot of non-billable time to correct). You end up self-cutting hours or partners cut them for you just to avoid appeals - impacting overall hours. Bonus/salary tied solely to billing - doesn't matter how good your work product is or how hard you work. A lot of Partners have laissez-faire approach and tend to be unresponsive. They then come down hard when things fall through cracks. Assignment system for Support Staff/Paralegal system is confusing and dysfunctional. Some support staff are actively hostile or just don't do the work (though I believe its because they're overworked). Overall diversity of the firm is lacking - especially among management.

Explore other reviews about Kennedys

5.0
19 Jun 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Amazing office manager - Amazing colleagues who help and stay long late when needed - Attorneys are great to with for and are very helpful

Cons

- Bathrooms, especially those in female restroom, could use more soap. Otherwise, amazing place to work and no cons.

4.0
27 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Your experience in Defense group is highly dependent on who your managing partner is. Good work-life balance. Manageable case load. Fellow associates generally nice and willing to help. Secondment program allows you to take a week long work trip to another Kennedys office anywhere in the globe and learn about foreign legal system. Depending on your team, you can handle some really interesting cases that even go outside of ID realm.

Cons

Support staff sucks. Management doesn't want to invest in support staff. Pay is not the best. NY firm is a bit siloed. Its still ID work so it can get miserable at times. Sometimes firm culture can be a bit catty - lots of people talking behind your back and you gotta watch what you say to certain folks.

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