Akin Reviews

Very low PTO when you start in comparison to other firms. Health benefits offered are not good. You do not have a choice of say an HMO plan or PPO. It is automatically and HSA where they give you $750.00 in an HSA account to help you reach the deductible, which is high. For single it is $2,000, for a family, it is $6,000. The employee contribution is low per pay because you end up paying more out of pocket. Even after reaching your deductible if you stay in-network you are only covered 90%, you are responsible for the other 10%. If you go out of network you are covered only 70% making your share 30%. So you can imagine if your doctor sends you for an MRI which usually can run you $1500-$2000 after having met your deductible, you are responsible for the other 10% which can run you from $150.00 to $200.00. On IT support, they can do better on the training. There is a three-four day training (two full days) but it basically just covers how to work the employee portal and templates. No training on their New Client/Matter, Conflicts software, no training on billing procedures or who the respective billing coordinator is until the day you have to submit the bill because it's the deadline. On a more personal experience, I Can't really speak about other departments but Partners in the particular department I worked at are not patient with someone learning the new environment and procedures. They expect you to know everything within your new role because of the number of years of experience. You're supposed to know all procedures, pet peeves, and anticipate their needs within a two-month frame. No tolerance for minor errors. EVER. Your two eyes are supposed to be equipped with a proofreading software to pick-up every single mistake or missed item because humans should not make mistakes. Speaking of robotic features, nothing wrong with multi-tasking, it's what secretaries are used to doing. Except in this environment when you are assisting 6,7 even 8 attorneys plus expect to help any visiting attorney that is located on your floor, distractions should not be a reason to making a minor error or missing something. $22.50 cents seems to be a big deal missing from an expense report even though you can just submit it separately. Omitting inadvertently that amount for reimbursement in an expense report seems to "mess with someone's pocket." Not very supportive or caring for that matter with unexpected personal family issues requiring you to be a day or day and one-half out of the office such as illness or death in the family. Extended family such as an aunt or uncle is not considered someone important to qualify for one day of bereavement to attend the funeral. Has to be taken from personal/vacation time. I did not have a positive experience in this position. Confident enough to say not because of me, but more because of the impatience, selfish and unsupportive nature of an attorney whose focus was more on copying and trying to emulate the senior partner, then just making his own mark. My wish is for one day any one of these attorneys, particularly partners would sit at a secretaries desk who assist 7, 8, 9 people for a week and see if they can handle it. I can assure you by the half-day of the first day they would be pulling their hairs out.

Akin Gump's raises and bonuses did not compensate per individual in accordance to each individual's own merit. Each office is given an amount to be divided among you and your co-workers on your same level. If you go above and beyond performing your job tirelessly and work 60hrs a week (when you are only required to work 37.5hrs a week) and your co-worker sitting next to you only works their core hours 37.5 a week, management gives you both the exact same amount which is unfair, unprofessional, and does not give the "above and beyond" employee incentive to want to strive to always improve their skills to be more efficient for their team (which, in turn, promotes profits and efficiency for the firm as a whole), or be on-call for their team whenever needed outside of their core working hours which is sometimes necessary depending on the partners you support. The "above and beyond" employees need to be compensated more than the "regular" employee solely for their own employee performance and merit, not looped in as a whole "blanket raise or bonus" along with their other colleagues on their same level. Management (Human Resources) has favorites. If you cross their favorites, you will be on their "blackball" list. If you and another employee get reprimanded for doing the exact same thing, and you are one of management's "favorites" they turn the other cheek or may receive a warning (slap on the wrist) and not do anything to that employee, but if you are the employee that is not one of their "favorites" then you will be reprimanded, not given a warning (when their "favorites" do) and will be terminated on the spot, without questioning you about your actions, or allowing you to defend yourself when the allegations are unwarranted and false. You would have to retain an attorney after the fact to fight congress "Human Resources" on your behalf. You have to always walk on eggshells with management and be under their radar even when you aren't doing anything wrong, you are under constant micromanagement (microscope). Not a pleasant work environment and sometimes a hostile work environment. I would never work for this company again and would advise no one else to either.