Pros
Smart, talented and helpful colleagues. There is also a keen desire to keep improving the product and to implement new tools, such as AI, in a responsible manner.
Cons
By far, the biggest disappointment is the greed-fueled mission of Internet Brands' private equity owners to maximize profits as quickly as possible by reducing U.S. payroll and benefits.
Since buying FindLaw from Thomson Reuters in late 2024, Internet Brands has steadily hired workers in Mexico and the Philippines and proportionately cut U.S.-based staffing to take advantage of lower labor costs. New hires in those two countries have remained steady despite stagnant to declining sales.
Team members with more than 20 years of experience (who received the highest compensation) were among the first to be let go, even before the sale closed, as U.S. layoffs have become routine in nearly every quarter since. These were people who helped build FindLaw into a leading legal marketing company.
I will give them credit for not hiding who they are. From the beginning, during the first Teams meeting in late 2024, the CEO's first words to nearly 1,000 FindLaw employees were that IB's only mission is to "make money." It was jarring for everyone to go from a company like Thomson Reuters, which valued its employees and had a progressive workplace culture, to the new owners' unbridled, unapologetic greed.