Employee Benefits Attorney

Harter Secrest & Emery LLP is a full-service business law firm with deep roots in Western and Central New York. Founded in Rochester over 100 years ago, the firm has grown into the largest law firm headquartered in Rochester, with a major second office in Buffalo, a government affairs and corporate practice in Albany, and additional space in Corning and New York City for client travel. The firm has approximately 300 employees and 54 partners.

HSE serves a remarkably broad client base — from local family-owned businesses and early-stage startups to international public companies, Fortune 100 employers, hospitals and health systems, universities, municipalities, and nonprofits. The firm is consistently top-ranked in Chambers USA in Corporate/M&A, Litigation, Immigration, Environment, Labor & Employment, and Real Estate, and is recognized in 52 areas of practice in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms. Across practices, the firm represents clients in federal and state courts, before federal and state agencies, and across complex business transactions including M&A, private equity, capital markets, equity and debt financing, intellectual property, employee benefits, and venture capital work.

What makes HSE structurally different from most peer firms is its compensation model. HSE is a true lockstep-with-accountability partnership — old-school in the best sense, before the eat-what-you-kill model became standard. All partners are paid on a seniority-based points schedule with a cap, meaning that after a certain point in the partnership, every partner earns the same. This eliminates internal competition for credit, structurally incentivizes cross-selling, and pushes partners to delegate work down so associates and counsel can develop earlier. Partnership is single-tier equity — no permanent non-equity counsel layer — and the track runs approximately 9 to 11 years. When an attorney is voted in, they become a full equity partner from day one.

The firm hires laterals to fill long-term needs, not to fuel attrition. Associates are slotted in at their class year and integrated through a customized onboarding plan that identifies experience gaps and builds toward partnership readiness. Billable target is 1,800 hours, with 50 hours of pro bono treated as billable and up to 10 hours of qualifying DEI work counting toward that pro bono expectation. The firm operates a hybrid policy of approximately 50% in-office over the year, measured on trust rather than badge swipes, with flexibility for individualized arrangements when life requires it.