Reed Smith LLP

OUR SURVEY SAYS

Vault’s Verdict: Exposure to substantive work early on, stellar work/life balance and great initiatives for female lawyers all score high with Reed Smith’s associates. Less popular is the firm’s compensation system, which is slightly below market and, according to associates, completely opaque.

Associate Life

Satisfaction
•  "I am very happy with the experience I am getting—it's almost all interesting and substantive, with amazing opportunities beginning at the junior level for court appearances, deposition experience, and client interaction as well as drafting all types of pleadings and motions. Based on what I hear from friends at other firms, this is very rare."
•  "There is a wide variety of opportunities for advancement and learning at Reed Smith and I genuinely like the people I work with and for."
•  "I am very happy at the firm and pleased to be kept busy and given meaningful work assignments. I would like to see the firm increase associate salary to market levels commensurate with other large law firms. The firm has moved away from market and away from lockstep salary scales in recent years."
•  "In the practice of law at a big firm, I do not believe I would want to practice at any other firm. I've had tremendous opportunities here to practice in a wide variety of areas and work with some really good and really smart people."