Pros
For staff, there are only a few pros at Ward and Smith. There is plenty of work to do. You will get a lot of experience. You will work with generally friendly and knowledgeable people.
Cons
It is quite clear that management is only focused on the satisfaction and professional development of the attorneys. Overall staff morale is very low. Staff (receptionists, mailroom clerks, fileroom clerks, administrative assistants, and paralegals) are all treated as though they are disposable and/or easily replaced. Their roles in the firm are not respected and devalued by the way upper management ignores the staff AND blatantly flaunts the perks that attorneys receive. Too many upper management personnel have been added yet entry level personnel are being either not replaced when they leave or their positions are being made redundant, leaving only the billable members of staff to perform their the non-billable tasks, YET the billable staff are still required to meet high billing requirements.