Pros
Dress code is almost non-exsistant. Sweatpants are acceptable everyday wear. The people in the New York office are all awesome people who I am still friends with even after my departure. One of the most flexible work schedules out there.
Kontras
I hope this doesn’t have a word count because there are too many to name. For starters, there have been more than 15 people who have quit in the last few months and I think 2 people have been hired. That equals an absolutely insane work load for the rest of the people who stay. The upper management sits in a different office located in totally different state. They drag their feet making any sort of decision and their favorite line to use is “oh that’s a great point / question. I’ll get back to you” and of course they never do. Oh and the worst part is that they absolutely and ridiculously underpay you. So if you want a heavy work load without the compensation, this is the place for you. Even before people starting to make a mass exodus from BAL because they realized this place is horrific, the workload was still insane. Then they claim they can’t afford to give a salary bump to people who have been there for years. Unless you count a 2.48% annual pay bump (this is what they offered me after the annual review when I have 3 years of experience). One of the biggest partners of the firm who loves to show his face once in a blue moon is solely obsessed with planning parties. Which is all find and dandy except that they’re all mandatory and they are for the dumbest things. Example: BAL filed their “millionth” case since becoming a firm. OH but here is the kicker, that 1 millionth case was an LCA that was filed... aka they were counting “projects opened” on their god awful Cobalt system. So just like everything else BAL says, it was a load of you know what. Side note, the “cobalt specialist” at BAL is so unknowledgeable that you would get more information out of talking to a wall. The case work isn’t the only thing that’s unbearable though. The upper management is so incompetent that they keep making you re-do certain projects because they don’t know what to look for. The best part is that one of the biggest partners ADMITTED to not knowing what he/she was doing with asking for some of the work in the first place. If that doesn’t scream “I literally have no idea how to run an office” I don’t know what does. It’s like upper management is driving a sinking Titanic into another iceberg. So if you don’t want to be Jack, you should stay on land. Can I give less than a 1 star rating?