Baker McKenzie SF Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have any info on this office? I've heard mostly poor things about the culture, is that true? Anything would be greatly beneficial.

[Anonymous User]

Bump/additionally:

Or for the firm in general, including other specific offices?

[Anonymous User]

Bump/additionally:

Or for the firm in general, including other specific offices?

Baker associate from non-SF office here. Sorry this is late, but maybe it'll still help you (or others down the road). I haven't spent any time in the SF office but I do work with a few SF/PA associates on various matters, and they don't seem too happy. In general, there isn't really a "culture" to the whole firm -- people tend to stick close to their practice groups and there's very little cross-group interaction outside of a few firm-wide events per year. Everyone is friendly enough, but people have lives/families and socializing is minimal. This means your experience at the firm is hugely impacted by your practice group, and specifically by which partners you end up working for. A lot of people in my group (like me) are really happy here because we managed to latch onto the right partners, but others are miserable because they got stuck with the wrong guy. I would say in most US offices, there's a fairly small number of "wrong guys" and most associates are happy. But in SF/PA, the "wrong guy" ratio is out of whack. A lot of the principals there are out-of-touch old white dudes whose eccentricities got the better of them many years ago.