Worst decision of my life. - Legal Administrative Assistant Fragomen Employee Review

1.0
Apr 14, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- nice views - stocked kitchen

Cons

- Extremely high turn over rate, the first week I was there over 12 people I knew had quit (they had each been there less than 3 months) and within 3 weeks I had quit. When everyone quit, we literally had an "I Quit Frago" party -- just throwing that out there as an idea of what kind of misery awaits you when you take this job. - It's an obscene amount of hours, extremely low pay, ridiculous expectations, and you have no idea if you're going to be kept on as permanent/long-term or not. - They fired a few people when I was there and it was the most humiliating process every single time. They come up to your cubicle in front of everyone, demand that you pack your stuff and give you 2 seconds before they walk you out. There is absolutely no dignity or sense of privacy in the process. - Attorneys somehow keep getting involved in admin drama. There is very little boundaries between them and they are all the dumbest attorneys out there. Half of them couldn't find jobs and resorted to Frago. It's a disaster. - Most people who start working at Frago do it because they plan on applying to/going to law school soon after. Because of the work environment and the hours and the stress, most people don't end up having enough time to study for their LSATs and either wing it and end up in a diploma-mill school, or just work at frago for 6 years and don't experience any movement in their lives at all. It's sad to see hopes and dreams crushed by a work schedule -- especially one that is compensated so poorly. All hope is not lost, however, because if youre lucky enough and work there for several years enough, you might be promoted to a higher level of 'administrative assistant.' - Frago usually has a habit of promoting you and your position without actually paying you more for it. You're supposed to get an extra $10,000/year salary for every level you move up in.

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Fragomen Response
9y
I'm sorry you found your experience at Fragomen so challenging. After consulting with local HR and leadership in our Chicago office, I wanted to address a few of your concerns and clarify a few points. Temporary Administrative Assistants are brought in to assist groups during busy times. It's agreed, the hours are more demanding during our busy season as they are in most law firms during busy times, but we strive to monitor the amount of temporary staff that we bring in to assist in the office, and adjust the level of backup support as required. We are frequently able to later hire temporary staff into regular employee roles, but unfortunately there is no guarantee that we will have roles available, so sometimes the temp assignments end. Although we appreciate your feedback, we're not sure that your three week temporary assignment with our firm would have given you enough insight to comment on our internal promotion processes or compensation structures (your assessments of both are incorrect.) That being said, all feedback is good feedback, and we thank you for sharing your opinion. Gary Whyld, Director of Talent Acquisition (gwhyld@fragomen.com)

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Cons

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Pros

Decent overtime pay. I also had a decent training/onboarding experience, but this was not the norm.

Cons

Exploitative, 80+ hour work weeks, 2am messages from attorneys, burn-out model for paralegals and associates (scoop them up after BA or JD and overwork them until they quit), misrepresent case load during interview by 50% of total, low ceiling for non-attorney career advancement. Have an exit plan.

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