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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of the comments on here reflect either a younger associate viewpoint, or dated attitudes about staff attorneys.

Firms have been experimenting a little bit with attorney roles in the last 10-20 years, and staff attorneys, counsel, and non-equity partners are all part of that. There's actually a pretty broad range of set-ups at firms at this point.

There are firms where a staff attorney actually is basically a non-partnership-track associate. Hausfeld comes to mind. Their staff attorneys, especially senior staff attorneys, do substantive work (not just e-discovery) and can even manage teams, but they have better work-life balance and more predictable hours (and lower overall pay) than associates. I've encountered a handful of other firms like this as well, though as a PP noted, sometimes firms will use the counsel/of counsel position as the right place for mid-career attorneys who earn a regular salary, are not partnership track, but are substantive and high level contributors.

But some firms use counsel positions mostly as a stepping stone to partner, so they will test it up differently.

However, at most AmLaw 100 firms, the staff attorney role will be viewed as significantly lower status than even a first year associate. Many firms still maintain a culture where there is a strict divide between attorneys and staff (in terms of culture, status, benefits, and pay) and at these firms, it's morel likely for staff attorneys to be treated more akin to paralegals and to be viewed as less important or valuable.

So my answer to your question would be that it is highly dependent on the firm and I'd really want to investigate before I took this role. At firms where staff attorneys are low status, your position will also be significantly less secure in a volatile market, as laying off staff attorneys in a down market can be a way to conceal attorney layoffs (because industry media will focus on associate/counsel/partner layoffs).[/quote]

Good job getting ChatGPT to write a response. Your first paragraph conflicts with your fifth paragraph. Your choice of Hausfeld is particularly odd. [/quote]

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