Pros
SB Friedman is a distinctive firm- the employees are intellectually curious, intellectually honest, take their profession seriously, and are genuinely committed to supporting successful redevelopment projects in economically distressed communities. The culture is one of inquiry, rigor, and making sure that any work the firm puts its name on has been carefully researched and analyzed. The firm has a unique array of services that cross the whole spectrum of redevelopment- at the conceptual stages, providing market analysis, economic analysis, visioning about the possibilities in a disinvested community. In the intermediate stages, providing strategic advice to government and institutional clients about how to engage with developers and to get the right outcome. In the implementation stages, providing financial analysis and structuring recommendations to make complex public/private development projects succeed. It's a stimulating place to work if you are intelligent, genuinely committed to your profession, and ready to work hard. The staff and management are genuinely approachable and always ready to hear a new idea, a well-reasoned conclusion, or a proposed methodology to get the job done better. Ego does not drive this place- everyone wants to get to the right answer and work together to get there. An idea from the most junior person will be seriously considered.
Cons
SB Friedman's management takes the quality of work very seriously. Those that don't succeed at the firm have felt intimidated by the questions they receive about how they arrived at a given analytical conclusion or where a specific number in their analysis came from. The questions are motivated by the firm's need to produce high quality work product and to avoid embarrassing mistakes that put the client in an awkward situation. However, if employees can't explain their thought process and defend their work internally, they tend to get demoralized. Employees need to navigate a multi-manager system, so juggling and reconciling sometimes-conflicting priorities from different managers is a common need. Staffers who can handle this process proactively and gracefully do much better than those that aren't self-starters.
