Pros
I was able to work from home and maintained a good work/life balance as a result. I automated most of the tasks assigned to me and could have automated the entire Legal Dept., but this company prefers inefficiency and redundancy over innovation and progress. All of their contracts are contingency contracts and very easy to beat/argue against if you're a homeowner feeling swindled by them.
Cons
I worked under the direct supervision of someone in the C-Suite who is slow to understand things, quick to overreact to them, and even quicker to blame his problems on someone else. They would call me frequently (sometimes up to 20 times in a day) just to tell me things they had already told me, or to share information which had nothing to do with the job or my role at the company. They once called me three separate times to lament to me for over an hour (each call) about a problem they created and could not figure out how to solve...I wish I was kidding. Additionally, I was told by this person that it would take "years" for me to get "up to speed" at the company because it had taken them at least 2.5 years to do so, but it took me maybe 2.5 months, and then the role became extremely boring. I was and am more capable than my former boss is, which was evident very early on at my time with Advocate. Unfortunately for Advocate, instead of realizing the value they had by hiring an attorney with an MBA for a legal assistant role, they minimized me and my tasks while simultaneously, and I am directly quoting my former boss here, "taking advantage of the fact that you can do lawyer tasks for assistant pay". Obviously, that didn't sit well with me, nor did the fact that my former boss lies frequently to everyone about their compensation plan, and had me doing the entirety of the work that directly led to an increase in their pay, not mine. They received (and continues to receive) a cut of every dollar the company was able to recoup from my demand letter efforts. I automated that entire portion of their role, and could have taken over the entirety of their role for less money, and automated those tasks as well. I added the value of increased efficiency, decreased redundant communication, and advanced technological skills which were far superior to theirs. Considering I, and I alone, helped the company recover over a million dollars in the 10 months I was there, they also could have done the normal thing and offered me a separation agreement and severance payment when I left, but they chose not to.
