The Work
“The bulk of the work is made up of large-scale commercial disputes,” one associate told us. That includes a good deal of antitrust, bankruptcy and corporate work, but the firm also has a strong reputation for environmental work, in which it acts as prosecution and defense counsel across a broad spectrum of matters. In all, around three quarters of attorneys are litigators. Associates can also join the firm’s smaller corporate and real estate departments.
Associates are not forced to specialize and can take on all kinds of work from within and across departments. “I don’t think there’s an expectation of specialism. If you want to be a generalist, you will have that opportunity then if you want to specialize, you get the opportunity to do that as well.”
Associates are expected to manage their workload and find work from shareholders themselves, allowing them some autonomy in determining the breadth of their practice: “If you have an interest in doing something out of your department – like working on a family or bankruptcy matter – you could pursue it. The firm doesn’t adhere to ramrod strict categorization.” This “sink or swim” culture means you can “push your limits” and get a high level of responsibility early on in your careers.
To help with time management, “there’s an assigning shareholder here who gets requests from people who need associates, keeps track of how busy everyone is and sees if they have space to take on new matters.” There’s the chance to “pick and choose or say ‘I want to work with this person’ or ‘I want this kind of work’.” Because the associate pool is small and because of the firm’s transparent billing procedures, “everyone knows everyone else and can take more stuff on. There’s a good shared understanding of what needs doing and roughly what order of priority things should be given.”
Work is varied; several associates said no two days are ever the same. “I don’t just do one type of work,” a junior litigator said. “In the last year or so I’ve been involved on a contract dispute between two household-name multinationals, a trusts and estate case over a family owned corporation worth millions of dollars, and a second trusts and estates trial that’s been rumbling on for two and a half years.” Another associate was “putting together a complaint with preliminary injunction papers and moving towards filing. Prior to that I did some research, and before that I was writing memoranda and drafting a motion for reconsideration.”
“I sound like a shill for the firm, but I love it,” an associate said. “The work is of the highest possible level but people are always cracking jokes; we take work seriously but don’t take ourselves seriously.”
Training & Development
Thanks to its manageable size, Hangley is “pretty much a learn-as-you-go kind of place” when it comes to training. “There wasn’t a really extensive orientation process with various training from people. There’s a basic intro and then you get started.”
If you are “willing to get your hands dirty right away and don’t mind being put out of your comfort zone” you’ll like Hangley’s approach to training, “but not everyone thrives on that. If you want more structure, hierarchy and handholding, you might be better off elsewhere.”
Associates are assigned an associate mentor and a shareholder mentor to whom they can direct any and all questions. For assessments, associates fill out a list of cases they’ve worked on and who they’ve worked with, and then their colleagues will fill it in ready for discussion with the board. True to the firm’s character, it’s not an intense grilling but more of an informal chat.
Associates are trained to think of the running of the firm as a whole. Associates say that it is “easy to ask questions about the management. We have monthly associate meetings where associates sit around the table with shareholders. In last week’s meeting, the CEO talked about the firm’s budgeting process.” There is also an associate observer to the Board of Directors.
Offices
The majority of attorneys work in the Philadelphia HQ, but there are two other offices in Pennsylvania – Harrisburg and Norristown – and one in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
“I have my own office – all attorneys do, as do paralegals. Secretarial support has its own cubicle on the floor too. We currently have two and half floors on the top of an office building shared with a couple of other law firms,” said a Philly associate. “The office is nice; there’s a good view – a bunch of buildings and, if I crane my neck, some water. There’s a little kitchen and vending machines.”
Culture
Hangley treats its associates as crucial members of the firm from the get-go: “I know that a lot of firms beat up associates before they ‘earn their stripes,’ but we assume they have those stripes when they walk in the door and treat them accordingly,” says firm shareholder Wendy Beetlestone.
Beetlestone continues: “At some firms, the target is huge amounts of money and the culture is irrelevant, so how associates feel doesn’t matter. At some you will emerge at partner level as one of the best lawyers in America, but until then you will be crushed.” Luckily, associates didn’t feel this way about Hangley.
“People have lives outside the firm and you hear about them. There are people who write short stories, people dedicated to their families or have a passion for golf, or art," a junior revealed. "Though we work hard on substantial matters, the firm advertises itself as a quirky and fun-loving group of people. It’s true.”
Hangley’s website proudly states: ‘There are three time-honored rules of traveling: Patience, Flexibility, and Sense of Humor. They have served us well.’ The website displays its shareholders doing that ‘hey buddy!’ finger pointing thing (click the ‘About Us’ tab on their homepage).
The firm’s culture is partly informed by its transparency, according to juniors: “The shareholders explicitly pursue a management style that is transparent. The nuts and bolts of work and feeling like a team are extremely important and to build that we all know what everyone is billing and what money is coming into the firm. The firm feels that it has nothing to hide and, if it wants people to stay to become shareholders, why not involve them from the start?”
Associates felt that it was easy to mix with the other attorneys: “Everyone has been very welcoming, patient and willing to help. And I’ve not picked up even the slightest bit of competitive sentiment from my co-workers; people are interested in each other's success and the firm’s success, not what they can do to get ahead. I’d taken this for granted, then someone mentioned it and I realized what a nice thing it was to be able to take for granted.”
“The firm is good at making chances for people to get to know each other and interact, like during Friday lunches when the firm buys in lunch and sets up in the conference room so that everyone can eat together – staff, attorneys, shareholders – all are invited and people do come along; it’s usually a good turnout,” said one happy associate. “Each lunch has a surprise theme; there’s a lunch committee who make all the decisions and you find out the theme when you get there but it’s always good stuff,” confirmed another.
Associates said that the firm’s entrepreneurial style of finding your own work in a team might not suit those who prefer a stricter hierarchy and that overly ambitious or super-competitive people might not fit in at the firm. “We don’t have many screamers, yellers or people who are deliberately obnoxious – we don’t do that well here,” corroborates Beetlestone.
Hours & Compensation
The firm sets a “fair” target of 1,800 hours, “keeps an eye on how much people bill and says something if they work too much.”
Associates were pleased that the firm expected a healthy work/life balance. “I hit 2,000 hours and they said that was great, but let’s not make a habit of it,” one joked. “They want people to be successful, but also to go home and be happy. We’re not getting paid at the highest levels, but we’ve not got the highest targets either.” In light of this – and despite the lack of systematized bonuses – associates felt they got paid “very well.”
With the belief that transparency can improve firm culture, Hangley publishes billable hours internally to attorneys. Associates highlighted this as a major asset of the firm. Another well-received quality was the billable target rather than a ‘minimum requirement.' “The goal is 1,800 hours, which I am expected to land near. It’s not a minimum and, though my hours will be considered and brought up in my review, as long as I consistently do good work, it’s not a problem. If you don’t hit it, there’s no pay deduction or sanction; the main concern will be if you had difficulty doing the work or whether the department was a bit slow.”
Pro Bono
Hangley “not only approves but encourages social community work and, because so many lawyers are already involved, it’s become a cultural thing.” Lawyers sit “on boards of prominent local organizations and it’s not frowned upon to leave work for that sort of thing.” As a way of promoting pro bono, the firm sends out letters addressing what’s available, as a result of which “the firm has taken on some huge cases.”
Hangley acknowledges the capabilities of its associates and doesn’t want to “just throw them in a box and expect them just to churn out work – we expect them to engage in the community and give them time to do so. As a lawyer you have to be able to walk into the community knowing that you have people’s respect,” says Beetlestone. As such, community pro bono work is important to the firm, something that doesn’t go unnoticed by associates. “I’ve worked with several local education institutions and taken part in a literacy program,” said one.
“I heard they want people to do 50 hours of pro bono per year, which doesn’t count towards the billable total.” There is no official pro bono hours policy.
Diversity
Associates described the firm as “somewhat diverse,” saying there were “several Asian attorneys.” Another added: “There are some minority staff, but I’m not sure how many minority attorneys.” At associate level, there are more females than males, but at shareholder level the reverse is true. “At a firm of this size, the departure or arrival of a single lawyer can have a big swing effect on diversity, but it is welcoming of diversity and people are aware of it,” said an associate.
Get Hired
The hiring process is “pretty standard.” One explained his experience: “I got in touch with the hiring coordinator here, sent him my materials and fortunately they were interested in hiring associates so I came in for an interview.” There’s no summer program per se – the board looks at how the firm is doing and takes on associates as and when they need.
“Someone with an ego wouldn’t fit in, nor would someone who doesn’t play well with others,” one explained. “It’s a small firm so everyone is expected to pitch in; you can’t fly under the radar. They want someone who has a life outside of work and is involved in the community.”
“When we bring associates on board, we do so believing that we are not only one of the best firms in Philadelphia, but in the country. We are small, but we really know how to handle a case, so we only take the best and brightest associates,” shareholder Wendy Beetlestone says. “Usually they are from the best law schools, the top of their class, who have done clerkships; people who could go anywhere and can be treated as fully-fledged members of the team upon arrival.”
Interviews are “set up so that there is a shareholder and an associate present at each one. You spend time with four different pairs of interviewers, interviewing in the morning and then going out to lunch with shareholders and associates.”
Strategy & Future
Attorneys recognize that the firm has a good thing going and therefore it doesn’t need to change or ambitiously grow for the sake of it. “Hangley has an idea of how the firm ought to be and there is a fair amount of effort to keep that model,” observed an associate. “The firm has grown quite slowly: it was probably around 40 lawyers five years ago and is now about 55.” The firm’s discerning attitude toward hiring has enabled it to maintain a strong reputation (especially for trial lawyers) and we doubt it would risk compromising its culture for the sake of growth.
“I don’t think the firm is expecting to change its strategy or expand into new cities. The expansion – to the extent there has been expansion – has been within,” Beetlestone tells us. “The new offices in New Jersey and Norristown opened because we acquired a great family team in Norristown – including probably the best divorce lawyer in Pennsylvania – and a great real estate guy in New Jersey.”
The main change in the last few years was the addition of Ron Schiller and his team from DLA. “We did not previously have a shareholder whose practice was as tightly focused as Ron’s. He has a dedicated group of associates who only work on his matters and draws from the general litigation pool as well.” The firm looks at expansion on an individual basis, taking on people only if they like them as a person and what they can bring to the table.
* The firm does not disclose ethnicity statistics.