Culture

Culture is an amalgam of our people and our processes. We start with the best people. In all corners of our office, you’ll find experienced and highly qualified people with the highest degree of integrity. We are very selective in allowing attorneys or engineers to join us. We do not hire first-year attorneys like most other firms; we hire only seasoned professionals who have already acquired the wisdom and experience that you expect. We do not just hire engineers to help with the technical heavy-lifting of seriously complex technology; we hire Ph.D. level scientists. All of them must pass a rigorous examination of their technical skills, both legal and scientific, and then, just as important, they must pass muster in their work ethic, their integrity, and in all the factors of personality that contribute to the firm culture. We do not even rely solely on interviews and references in choosing our candidates. We also use the skills of industrial and organizational psychologists to ensure that our attorneys and professionals possess the internal drive and commitment to help our clients succeed. We go much farther than any other law firm to select the right people because we are seriously committed to providing to you the very best legal, business, and professional services available. To do that, everyone at Altera must share the same passion for quality and integrity on which this firm was founded.

To enable our staff to deliver what you need and expect, we have developed a best-in-class infrastructure of case management, contact management, and docketing tools. In designing the processes to deploy that infrastructure, we looked to the best-in-class processes of both the legal community and the business community. With the average time in practice of attorneys that is well above the norm, we have a vast reservoir of experience in how law firms, large and small, operate. With this base of experience, the resulting processes with which we operate reflect best-in-class operations of the very best law firms and the very best and most successful corporate businesses.

Among the hallmarks of the resulting culture is the collegial spirit with which all client matters are handled. Internal processes preclude hoarding of client matters by attorneys, a frequent problem of law firms that results in sub-optimized results for the client, because internal impediments at the firm prevent the client from accessing the talent it needs for a given job. We maintain a high degree of interactivity among staff at Altera so that wisdom and knowledge is shared, and so our clients get a better result. There are no silos or empires at Altera, no kingpins or prima-donnas, just hard working, very skilled, and very honest people working together to deliver good value to clients.