Vantaggi
Possibly the healthiest culture of all the unhealthy top law firms. Friendly, down-to-earth people. This is not a work-hard, play-hard environment - it's a work-hard-so-you-can-go-home-and-have-a-life environment. There's no pressure to stay late, just to get your work done on time. (If you're working past 8:00, you risk being seen as inefficient.) Management makes an effort to be transparent.
Svantaggi
The culture is so "nice" that you might get nothing but good feedback and you might not find out about a problem until performance review or bonus time comes around. Your mileage may vary when it comes to the culture of a particular practice group or the personality of the partner(s) you work most closely with. Some are great managers and communicators; others are cold and difficult to please. The move to the new offices was supposed to be an upgrade, but now it means tiny shared offices for some junior associates, sad windowless rooms for others, and unforgiving glass walls for all. No matter how "healthy" the culture is comparatively, it's still BigLaw: associates are given more work than they have time to complete well, and everyone is terrified of screwing up because they feel like they have no idea what they're doing and have to finish everything in a frantic rush.