It might be something as simple as leaving paralegals out of law firm-sponsored continuing legal education offerings that are free to the attorneys.

Fields Howell paralegal Summer Marshall, vice president of the South Florida Paralegal Association, said, "It's my understanding that both attorneys and paralegals have the same number of education credits that they need to accrue."

As a paralegal for 14 years, she emphasized the pecking-order stories she tells are not things that happened at her Miami firm, but she experienced internal bias between professionals and staff earlier in her career and has heard odd things from other association members.

In an obvious example of a tiered system, Katten Muchin Rosenman's largest office in Chicago had separate cafeterias that barred most of the staff from the attorney dining room.

"That's a bit petty," Marshall said. "Unfortunately, I think I would have expected more change. I just heard an example where a big law firm nationwide has a separate attorney lounge. It's just silly to me.  We all put our pants on the same way. Just because we have a different education doesn't mean we are a lesser human," she said, adding an apology for being "a bit harsh."

A professional caste system leaves the people on the lower end of the totem pole feeling powerless. But current-day South Florida seems relatively immune from stratification policies.

Some issues are avoided at the hiring stage by the applicants based on the feel of a firm, said Leslie Smith, Miami managing partner for Foley & Lardner.

"I do remember interviewing at a firm, which I will not name and no longer exists." She was told, "We don't let ladies litigate." She didn't go there.

"I wanted to get into the courtroom, so there you go," Smith said. But as a member of the bar for 31 years, "I've never forgotten it."

At Foley, "it's a team-based approach, and the staff is an integral part of that team," Smith said. The firm is in the process of switching to one-size-fits-all offices for attorneys, and the firm takes an egalitarian approach to amenities — they are available to everyone. She's particularly proud of the Miami office's 10th anniversary party at Vizcaya for attorneys and staff in 2017, where you can't distinguish attorneys and staff based on attire alone.

Smith spent 10 years with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and noted Foley and Buchanan are "both Midwest-based, and I think they bring some of that temperament. I know Foley in particular places high value on civility, and its something that we evaluate associates on."

Squire Patton Boggs partner Alvin Davis notes there's a pecking order based on job titles, but in terms of "interpersonal relationships, at least at our firm people do not treat other people differently." 

Davis was managing partner of Steel Hector & Davis in 2005 when it merged into Squire Sanders before it became Squire Patton Boggs. He said Steel Hector was "antithetical to that kind of structure or strata" going in.

"We did not break down along those lines of partner-associate. We didn't break down along those lines of profit centers, which is one of the most toxic ways that firms can operate. It's where you eat what you kill, including associates," he said. 

Heath Eskalyo, principal partner and chief financial officer at Kelley Kronenberg in Davie, noted the design of the firm's newly opened flagship office was intended to break down barriers, in part with glass-walled offices that are a physical demonstration of transparency. Human resources has a frosted-glass wall for confidential meetings, but pretty much everything else is see-through.

In the two-day onboarding process for new employees, "regardless of what position you hold in the office, you're given the same gift, lunch, etc.," he said.

A firm's philosophy can be seen in how it handles breakrooms, CLE work and diversity, Eskalyo said. A recent job candidate said his firm referred CLE requests to a committee for review and business development was paid as reimbursement rather than up front.

"Some firms are somewhat hypocritical when they say they promote female lawyers, minority lawyers, yet when there's a diversity seminar going on, that's not who's presenting. It's one of the owners, which is not consistent with what the topic of conversation is," Eskalyo said. 

He adds, "I'm certainly not telling you we do it all right. I'm not preaching we're the new wheel reinvented." But overall, he thinks the even-handed approach help fight attrition. 

"We try to really deflate egos." he said. "It's a challenge to manage lawyers because they do have egos, and we really try not to allow that to be part of our culture, and I think that's what allows us to keep that 'pecking order' away."

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