You will find some exceptional partners in the other firm locations. They will most likely leave within a few years to greener pastures. Why? The staff is underpaid mistreated and often last less than six months. Same with associates, who leave in a constant trickle. If you are not in the Texas clique club your prospects are not really good. Avoid the satellite offices outside Texas. They are terrible for your career. The new locations are gutted completely within eighteen months of their becoming new locations. Myth busting time. There have never been layoffs at this firm. They have been laying off associates, partners and staff just as much as the headline hogging Lantham or Goodwin or what have you. At least at those other places, the upper management has the curtesy to say it is us not you to the associates who leave. This is the culture of this firm. They hide their problems and act like everything is as bright as sunshine. There are some terrible terrible practitioners here. Some of them have an attitude that their work will never be litigated. Many of these folks are just one step away from a malpractice claim. Clients recognize some of this and in many cases they are former clients or clients that drastically reduce the work that HB does. No problem they will go acquire new partners and spit them out again. Rinse repeat. How to manipulate Mansfeld rule: To get to these Mansfeld 4.0 headlines they will do everything they can to not follow the spirit of the rule. For example, Mansfeld tracks say an ethnicity. They will layoff enough of one sub-ethnicity and hire enough of another sub-ethnicity which falls within the Mansfeld rule. Even better if the sub-ethnicity lines up with a practice group sub-management. You can sell your diversity to the Fortune 100 and yet not be in compliance. Their playbook is very sophisticated. So if you see all the rave reviews about diversity in the press. Take it with a pinch of a salt and then some. They absolutely hire and fire every x months to get their numbers just right to be compliant on paper. Who cares about the spirit of all these diversity measures. They use their resources to go acquire a firm when the market turns. Most of these acquisitions are very short lived. Eighteen months is the average before the new practice group is gutted and partners or associates leave or what have you. And they will stagger the layoffs so they avoid the "layoff press." Notice a recurring theme here? This is a firm that manages their image and is a terrible place to work. The partners that are left behind either have a lot of patience and will leave eventually or are partners that are in the clique club. They will do everything they need to get rid of a practice group. They will get rid of the staff so the partners will leave. They will short staff the practice on purpose. IT trouble, is likely layoff related. Get the message and start looking for new jobs. Work in Texas if you really want to be employed here. Otherwise, just skip this for a different firm.
