Pros
I worked at CRA in Oakland for 3 years and have been at a different job for 1 year now. It was hard to appreciate the many benefits of my experience at CRA until realizing that it taught me valuable skills that now make me a high performer at my current job. Working at CRA honed my attention to detail and writing skills. I can now write a detailed 10-page data memo (with footnotes and plots!) in just a couple of days. It taught me time management and how to speak up and voice my opinion (and ask questions) during meetings with seniors. Every Oakland senior staffer really likes teaching at heart - so they are always willing to hear your thoughts and questions and walk you through the economic theory and how they think about engaging with the client. The other junior staffers were also amazing co-workers that I still keep in touch with and we always supported each other. The work itself was pretty interesting and when working with the DOJ or FTC you often felt like you were on the side of "good." The economic experts at CRA Oakland hold themselves to a high standard and are not willing to sign a report that they do not themselves agree with - which also means that you can trust that the work you are doing isn't BS. CRA is willing to invest in their junior staff. Many of CRAs junior staff go on to grad school afterwards, and it's something they encourage and the seniors will often help you as much as they can. Office staff is amazing. The office manager in Oakland is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and she truly cares about making CRA a fun and welcoming place to work for everybody.
Cons
Long (~60 hrs/week) and often unpredictable hours are the norm, and you're pretty much always expected to work on weekends. In the bay area weekend work is pretty common and I pretty much do at least some work every weekend now, but unlike CRA it's not required and it's fun stuff that I want to do. Base pay is pretty low for the bay area - the quarterly and yearly bonuses are what bring compensation up to the bay area average. Bonuses are mostly tied to billable hours which are often out of your control as an analyst. It's often a high-stress job with tight deadlines. There were a handful of experiences I can think of where emotions ran high and people weren't always acting with the highest level of professionalism.