LAW FIRMS CSR

Since we have all bought the idea that we must do something to 'give back' to society, let's share a few thoughts on this CSR business. If you have not bought into the idea of CSR then this post is not really for you but of course you can follow.

The idea seems to be that you are doing so well, how can you just leave everyone and everything else to go to the pits? Yes, you have paid taxes, yes it is the governments responsibility, yes you will be accused of trying to sanitise your greedy ways but you still have to do it.
Oh, did I mention that you will also be accused of getting cheap publicity for your petty altruisms?

As a law office, what kind of stuff should you get into to scratch your CSR itch? Your people have interests in all sorts of stuff so you have to pick a direction or activity to invest your CSR fund in and it will help.
If you let the decision rise naturally i.e. your guys tend to love basketball so you set up the tournament for them street kids with your people as coaches, food vendors, career counsellors and buddies.

About publicising your CSR work, since it is a business expense you have to get some return on investment and the current trend on that is positive publicity so the public will think well of you during rough times or just plain think you are the salt of the earth.
But it has to be discreet, really discreet in fact no one should even be aware that you are orchestrating it because this tends to corrupt the spirit in which the work is done.
The ideal is to do the tourney in such a way that it generates a legitimate buzz that then drives the publicity. Think of it as running a solid eatery where everybody goes to after work at five with lines that go down the blocks. Everyone then asks ' what is going on'

In summary, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it fall, did the tree fall?