Corporations increasingly subscribe for the principle of corporate social responsibility. CSR is based on the belief that a demonstration of concern for the environment, human rights, neighborhood development plus the welfare of their personnel could make a corporation additional profitable. And if not additional lucrative, at least a better spot to operate.
Law firms can find out from corporate encounter to make their very own social responsibility programs. Such applications will help law firms to perform effectively by undertaking very good. They're able to strengthen the firm's reputation and industry position. They will assist the firm identify with the culture and CSR activities of clients and potential consumers. They're able to help lawyers and employees uncover much more which means in their perform and boost as human beings.
Within the words of the social duty Karma Committee at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: Be kind. Be generous. Be concerned. Donate time. Donate work. Donate dollars. Just come across a lead to and give. You'll rapidly learn providing is also receiving.
A panel discussion about how law firms can discover about CSR and introduce a few of its components into their very own models was sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter on the Legal Marketing Association. The program was held May well 8 at Maggiano's Small Italy in downtown Denver.
Panelists included Sarah Hogan, vice president of Barefoot PR; Bruce DeBoskey, lawyer and founder on the DeBoskey Group, which focuses on philanthropic advising; Joyce Witte, Community Investment Advisor and director with the Encana Cares Foundation, Encana Oil & Gas (USA); and Amy Venturi, director of neighborhood relations & karma at Brownstein. Moderator was Cori Plotkin, president of Barefoot PR.
At law firms, the product is the people - the lawyers and support staff who provide high quality legal services. It is an easy fit. There are many ways that this 'product' can contribute time, talent and treasure to socially responsible activities.
Social duty: Focus and strategy
Law firm social duty is all about making a difference within the community and the profession, and within a firm. Even the best efforts will make no impact if spread too thin. You cannot maximize the value of your contributions or tell your story if your efforts are too diluted. To decide how to most effectively invest its resources, a law firm needs a social duty focus and a strategy.
Social duty efforts must be authentic. Law firms and other entities should always avoid 'green-washing' - telling a story that is aspirational, but not really true. Know yourself. Let your firm's unique culture and skills determine which efforts to pursue and which to avoid.
When examining your culture, don't limit yourself to partner input. Law firms are small communities, almost like families. Any effort to define culture and social responsibility should represent not only the interests of lawyers, but the interests of all levels of support employees. Efforts must be meaningful throughout the firm. The benefits to employee recruitment, retention and satisfaction can be remarkable.
DeBoskey outlined three types of community involvement and stated his belief that a excellent social responsibility plan includes elements of all three.
In a traditional model, an organization 'gives back' randomly to the community when asked - as a fantastic citizen, rather than for any strategic purposes. In a social responsibility model, these efforts align with all the capabilities with the business - like the legal skills of lawyers. Every non-profit needs legal advice.
At it's most sophisticated, a social duty program involves using your core product - legal services - as a tool for social change. Volunteer with organizations like the Institute for the Advancement with the American Legal System at the University of Denver, or the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center.
A strong focus makes it much easier to make decisions. Encana, for example, focuses its charitable giving strategy on issues surrounding its product -- natural gas. Brownstein will donate revenue only if the request comes from a client, or if one of their attorneys is a member of your organization and on the board.
Law firms looking for additional advice can locate valuable resources within the Corporate Neighborhood Investment Network. CCIN is an association for professionals whose primary duty is to manage community investment applications in a for-profit business setting.
Many corporations and a few law firms have actually created separate foundations to mange a few of their giving. A foundation comes with far more restrictions and different tax methods. As entities with a life of their very own, however, foundations are far more likely than one-off efforts to continue a useful existence.
Social responsibility: Good policies make good decisions
Strategy and focus provide the foundation for an effective social duty policy. Most law firms are inundated with requests from great causes asking for their support. A policy helps you know when to say "yes" to and when to say "no."
Within the law firm model, where all partners are owners with a sense of entitlement to resources, it can be very difficult to say no. A keenly focused policy makes it much easier to perform so and keep the firm's efforts on track.
Encana, for example, uses a five-step tool to determine the level of fit between a request plus the company's strategic goals in the field of natural gas - with level five being the largest commitment and level one the lowest.
Level five efforts integrate core product or service and often involve natural gas vehicles and energy efficiency initiatives using natural gas. These efforts contribute to best practices and leading trends inside the industry, while enhancing the company's reputation as a leader.
Level four efforts focus on strategic partnerships and often involve sustainable and long-term solutions like workforce improvement initiatives, signature applications (which can be repeated in other markets) and multi-year grants.
Level three efforts include strategic grants to assist with projects, applications or initiatives made to local non-profits aligned with natural gas.
Level two efforts include responsive providing, which is a one-time gift for a broad community effort that has local support. Participation of company representatives is required.
Level one efforts include the "t-shirt and banner" category, which contains one-day items like dinners, receptions, golf tournaments, events and races. These offer the least impact and awareness for the revenue, and therefore the least support.
At Brownstein, requests made towards the firm are judged by two factors. The firm considers only requests made by clients and requests made by organizations where one of its attorneys participates at the board level.
Social duty: Engagement
Effective social duty applications involve not only checkbook involvement, but personal and professional involvement.
At Brownstein, the brand has always been about being out within the neighborhood. Six years ago, Venturi was asked to formalize this essential component of your firm's culture into a social duty system that would further energize lawyers.
She started by spending 15 minutes with each of the attorneys, to learn their passions - which were used to identify a very good non-profit match. After all, lawyers and employees will stay involved and do their best only when an organization is something that they care deeply about. If there is no engagement, the placement will backfire.
Finally, Venturi offers the lawyer's services for the non-profit in some capacity - but it must be at the board level. Otherwise, she won't make the match.
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Law firms can find out from corporate encounter to make their very own social responsibility programs. Such applications will help law firms to perform effectively by undertaking very good. They're able to strengthen the firm's reputation and industry position. They will assist the firm identify with the culture and CSR activities of clients and potential consumers. They're able to help lawyers and employees uncover much more which means in their perform and boost as human beings.
Within the words of the social duty Karma Committee at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: Be kind. Be generous. Be concerned. Donate time. Donate work. Donate dollars. Just come across a lead to and give. You'll rapidly learn providing is also receiving.
A panel discussion about how law firms can discover about CSR and introduce a few of its components into their very own models was sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter on the Legal Marketing Association. The program was held May well 8 at Maggiano's Small Italy in downtown Denver.
Panelists included Sarah Hogan, vice president of Barefoot PR; Bruce DeBoskey, lawyer and founder on the DeBoskey Group, which focuses on philanthropic advising; Joyce Witte, Community Investment Advisor and director with the Encana Cares Foundation, Encana Oil & Gas (USA); and Amy Venturi, director of neighborhood relations & karma at Brownstein. Moderator was Cori Plotkin, president of Barefoot PR.
At law firms, the product is the people - the lawyers and support staff who provide high quality legal services. It is an easy fit. There are many ways that this 'product' can contribute time, talent and treasure to socially responsible activities.
Social duty: Focus and strategy
Law firm social duty is all about making a difference within the community and the profession, and within a firm. Even the best efforts will make no impact if spread too thin. You cannot maximize the value of your contributions or tell your story if your efforts are too diluted. To decide how to most effectively invest its resources, a law firm needs a social duty focus and a strategy.
Social duty efforts must be authentic. Law firms and other entities should always avoid 'green-washing' - telling a story that is aspirational, but not really true. Know yourself. Let your firm's unique culture and skills determine which efforts to pursue and which to avoid.
When examining your culture, don't limit yourself to partner input. Law firms are small communities, almost like families. Any effort to define culture and social responsibility should represent not only the interests of lawyers, but the interests of all levels of support employees. Efforts must be meaningful throughout the firm. The benefits to employee recruitment, retention and satisfaction can be remarkable.
DeBoskey outlined three types of community involvement and stated his belief that a excellent social responsibility plan includes elements of all three.
In a traditional model, an organization 'gives back' randomly to the community when asked - as a fantastic citizen, rather than for any strategic purposes. In a social responsibility model, these efforts align with all the capabilities with the business - like the legal skills of lawyers. Every non-profit needs legal advice.
At it's most sophisticated, a social duty program involves using your core product - legal services - as a tool for social change. Volunteer with organizations like the Institute for the Advancement with the American Legal System at the University of Denver, or the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center.
A strong focus makes it much easier to make decisions. Encana, for example, focuses its charitable giving strategy on issues surrounding its product -- natural gas. Brownstein will donate revenue only if the request comes from a client, or if one of their attorneys is a member of your organization and on the board.
Law firms looking for additional advice can locate valuable resources within the Corporate Neighborhood Investment Network. CCIN is an association for professionals whose primary duty is to manage community investment applications in a for-profit business setting.
Many corporations and a few law firms have actually created separate foundations to mange a few of their giving. A foundation comes with far more restrictions and different tax methods. As entities with a life of their very own, however, foundations are far more likely than one-off efforts to continue a useful existence.
Social responsibility: Good policies make good decisions
Strategy and focus provide the foundation for an effective social duty policy. Most law firms are inundated with requests from great causes asking for their support. A policy helps you know when to say "yes" to and when to say "no."
Within the law firm model, where all partners are owners with a sense of entitlement to resources, it can be very difficult to say no. A keenly focused policy makes it much easier to perform so and keep the firm's efforts on track.
Encana, for example, uses a five-step tool to determine the level of fit between a request plus the company's strategic goals in the field of natural gas - with level five being the largest commitment and level one the lowest.
Level five efforts integrate core product or service and often involve natural gas vehicles and energy efficiency initiatives using natural gas. These efforts contribute to best practices and leading trends inside the industry, while enhancing the company's reputation as a leader.
Level four efforts focus on strategic partnerships and often involve sustainable and long-term solutions like workforce improvement initiatives, signature applications (which can be repeated in other markets) and multi-year grants.
Level three efforts include strategic grants to assist with projects, applications or initiatives made to local non-profits aligned with natural gas.
Level two efforts include responsive providing, which is a one-time gift for a broad community effort that has local support. Participation of company representatives is required.
Level one efforts include the "t-shirt and banner" category, which contains one-day items like dinners, receptions, golf tournaments, events and races. These offer the least impact and awareness for the revenue, and therefore the least support.
At Brownstein, requests made towards the firm are judged by two factors. The firm considers only requests made by clients and requests made by organizations where one of its attorneys participates at the board level.
Social duty: Engagement
Effective social duty applications involve not only checkbook involvement, but personal and professional involvement.
At Brownstein, the brand has always been about being out within the neighborhood. Six years ago, Venturi was asked to formalize this essential component of your firm's culture into a social duty system that would further energize lawyers.
She started by spending 15 minutes with each of the attorneys, to learn their passions - which were used to identify a very good non-profit match. After all, lawyers and employees will stay involved and do their best only when an organization is something that they care deeply about. If there is no engagement, the placement will backfire.
Finally, Venturi offers the lawyer's services for the non-profit in some capacity - but it must be at the board level. Otherwise, she won't make the match.
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