Career-wise, there is very little incentive to improve in order to move up in the company. Promotions are granted largely based on pending vacancies, though they rarely create new positions to fill a business need. And they only really promote people with a lot of years under their belt. So, a new person with more skills than an incumbent will have to pay their dues by respectfully waiting. This is not a good company for the ambitious.
Having said that, middle and upper management is not very receptive to new ideas that have not formally gone up the chain of command. This is slowly changing -- we've started forming subcommittees on various issues -- but it's often taken a crisis (the SAN going down; data loss; corrupt databases) to get management to pay attention.
The focus of the IT group seems to be efficiency first -- so the less new software or hardware they have to support, the better control they have, thereby maximizing efficiency. Ultimately, the IT needs of the firm take a backstep to the business of law (Morgan Lewis is a national lawfirm). So, if the attorneys don't see a technology need/upgrade (and they often cannot), then IT will continue to support software/hardware that is often several versions old or no longer supported by the manufacturer.
Lastly, the firm does not support continued education in your field. If you want advanced training, you have to pay for it yourself.
