Corporations increasingly subscribe to the principle of corporate social responsibility. CSR is primarily based on the belief that a demonstration of concern for the atmosphere, human rights, community improvement and the welfare of their employees can make a corporation far more lucrative. And if not far more lucrative, at least a much better spot to work.
Law firms can learn from corporate encounter to build their own social responsibility applications. Such applications can assistance law firms to do nicely by undertaking fantastic. They can strengthen the firm’s reputation and marketplace position. They can enable the firm identify with the culture and CSR activities of consumers and potential customers. They can support lawyers and employees obtain more meaning in their operate and increase as human beings.
In the words of the social duty Karma Committee at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: Be type. Be lawyers Glen Waverley . Be concerned. Donate time. Donate work. Donate funds. Just come across a lead to and give. You will rapidly learn giving is also getting.
A panel discussion about how law firms can learn about CSR and introduce some of its elements into their own models was sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing and advertising Association. The program was held May well 8 at Maggiano’s Little Italy in downtown Denver.
Panelists included Sarah Hogan, vice president of Barefoot PR Bruce DeBoskey, lawyer and founder of The DeBoskey Group, which focuses on philanthropic advising Joyce Witte, Community Investment Advisor and director of the Encana Cares Foundation, Encana Oil & Gas (USA) and Amy Venturi, director of community relations & karma at Brownstein. Moderator was Cori Plotkin, president of Barefoot PR.
At law firms, the product is the people today – the lawyers and support employees who deliver higher high-quality legal solutions. It is an uncomplicated match. There are a lot of strategies that this ‘product’ can contribute time, talent and treasure to socially responsible activities.
Social responsibility: Concentrate and method
Law firm social duty is all about creating a distinction within the neighborhood and the profession, and inside a firm. Even the ideal efforts will make no influence if spread too thin. You can’t maximize the worth of your contributions or tell your story if your efforts are too diluted. To decide how to most successfully invest its sources, a law firm requirements a social responsibility concentrate and a strategy.
Social duty efforts ought to be genuine. Law firms and other entities need to often avoid ‘green-washing’ – telling a story that is aspirational, but not genuinely correct. Know oneself. Let your firm’s exclusive culture and capabilities decide which efforts to pursue and which to stay clear of.
When examining your culture, do not limit yourself to partner input. Law firms are smaller communities, practically like families. Any effort to define culture and social duty ought to represent not only the interests of lawyers, but the interests of all levels of assistance staff. Efforts must be meaningful throughout the firm. The positive aspects to employee recruitment, retention and satisfaction can be outstanding.
DeBoskey outlined three kinds of community involvement and stated his belief that a superior social responsibility plan consists of components of all 3.
In a classic model, an organization ‘gives back’ randomly to the neighborhood when asked – as a great citizen, rather than for any strategic purposes. In a social responsibility model, these efforts align with the capabilities of the business – like the legal abilities of lawyers. Each and every non-profit wants legal advice.
At it’s most sophisticated, a social responsibility program includes working with your core solution – legal solutions – as a tool for social change. Volunteer with organizations like the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, or the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center.
A strong concentrate makes it much less difficult to make choices. Encana, for instance, focuses its charitable providing tactic on concerns surrounding its solution — all-natural gas. Brownstein will donate funds only if the request comes from a client, or if a single of their attorneys is a member of the organization and on the board.
Law firms seeking for further guidance can locate beneficial resources within the Corporate Community Investment Network. CCIN is an association for experts whose key duty is to manage neighborhood investment applications in a for-profit business setting.
A lot of corporations and a couple of law firms have really made separate foundations to mange some of their providing. A foundation comes with a lot more restrictions and various tax strategies. As entities with a life of their personal, even so, foundations are a lot more probably than 1-off efforts to continue a valuable existence.
Social responsibility: Great policies make good choices
Technique and concentrate supply the foundation for an successful social duty policy. Most law firms are inundated with requests from fantastic causes asking for their assistance. A policy helps you know when to say “yes” to and when to say “no.”
In the law firm model, exactly where all partners are owners with a sense of entitlement to resources, it can be incredibly tricky to say no. A keenly focused policy tends to make it substantially simpler to do so and preserve the firm’s efforts on track.
Encana, for example, uses a five-step tool to decide the level of match amongst a request and the company’s strategic objectives in the field of all-natural gas – with level five becoming the largest commitment and level one the lowest.
Level 5 efforts integrate core item or service and generally involve natural gas vehicles and energy efficiency initiatives using natural gas. These efforts contribute to best practices and major trends in the sector, whilst enhancing the company’s reputation as a leader.
Level 4 efforts concentrate on strategic partnerships and usually involve sustainable and lengthy-term options like workforce development initiatives, signature programs (which can be repeated in other markets) and multi-year grants.
Level 3 efforts include things like strategic grants to help with projects, programs or initiatives produced to local non-profits aligned with all-natural gas.