Big 4 assoc here. Had my fair share of scoldings but I don't think there's anything wrong with it either.

There's a line to be drawn between "verbal abuse" and scoldings. If you mess up as an associate, this has consequences which oftentime fall on the partners. As an associate you are ultimately not the one who is responsible for messups - it's your partners and their reputations which suffer.

A scolding when you make a mistake seems perfectly reasonable to me so long as it is confined to your mistake and helps you learn. When it goes into abuse territory, then it's definitely not okay .

That being said, I know of a lot of personalities who are simply unsuited for the law firm (or tbh, any corporate culture) life.