6 Ways to Enrich Your Law Firm’s Culture

If you want your law firm to stand out, start by making diversity and inclusion top priorities.

They’re essential for recruiting and retaining top talent, attracting new clients and creating a stellar law team.

“Diversity does not mean having a few ethnic or other minorities in the office,” write Allison Laffey and Allison Ng in this ABA article. “It also does not mean a group comprised only of minorities. It means having people of diverse culture, experience, and background in all levels of a law firm. True diversity and inclusion in the legal profession require more than just checking off the requisite boxes on a checklist or survey. They require more than talk. They require action from the leadership down.”

Lawyers Mutual is the only legal professional liability insurance company that has been protecting North Carolina lawyers continuously since 1977. Our motto, “Here Today, Here Tomorrow,” is more than a tagline. It’s our commitment to the lawyers in this state.

To cultivate a diverse and inclusive culture in your firm, it may help to see how other businesses have done it. Following are six successful strategies, courtesy of the US Chamber of Commerce website CO.

1. Emphasize the 4 H’s. Be helpful, humble, hungry and happy. That’s the mantra at New York-based CB Insights, which grew from 10 employees to more than 250 in five years. “The company prominently highlights its culture and often spotlights its 4 H’s — helpful, humble, hungry and happy,” writes Sean Ludwig in the CO piece. “In a move of radical transparency, CEO Anand Sanwal has a public-facing list of mistakes he has made, encouraging others to learn from where he went wrong and to experiment more.”
2. Create a Culture Code. “The Cambridge, Mass.-based company Hubspot has published its informative Culture Code for anyone to see, and it has updated the document dozens of times in order to keep it current and thoughtful,” writes Ludwig. “The Code sets the tone for all current employees and what sorts of employees it seeks out. Highlights from the Culture Code include that the company should ‘share openly,’ be ‘remarkably transparent,’ ‘favor autonomy,’ ‘dare to be different,’ and ‘recognize that life is short.’”
3. Be transparent about your workplace values. “Indeed, the world’s largest jobs site, has made great strides to promote a positive company culture,” writes Ludwig. “The company’s public page includes reviews, salaries, photos and Q&A regarding the company. The page shows off attributes like inclusion, encouraging taking time off with Open PTO, and a volunteer and company match platform that gives employees a way to give back to their community.”
4. Work well with others. Microsoft is lauded for having a consistently excellent corporate culture. “CEO Satya Nadella took over the company in 2014 and went to work resetting and rebuilding culture by first encouraging it to work well with other large companies instead of being insular,” writes Ludwig. “Besides its open-source approach, Microsoft is also known for its diversity, philanthropic efforts and workplace experimentation including testing a 4-day work week in Japan.”
5. Have fun. “New York-based Updater has office games like ping pong and board games, a book club and work outings that happen both during and outside of work. It also loves dogs and lets people bring them into the office. On top of this, the company has adopted a unique interview process — a full-day interview with candidates interacting and learning with prospective teams. This system ensures for the best matches possible to the culture of the company and to fellow employees.”
6. Promote happiness. “Zoom has a team that is nicknamed ‘the happiness crew,’ and that shows with the company being ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for happy employees,” writes Ludwig. “The company attributes employee satisfaction to ‘a fun yet productive culture, an open work environment, and highly competitive workplace benefits, including competitive pay, fitness reimbursement, unlimited time off, free meals, and monthly office parties.’”

Lawyers Mutual is the only legal professional liability insurance company that has been protecting North Carolina lawyers continuously since 1977. Our motto, “Here Today, Here Tomorrow,” is more than a tagline. It’s our commitment to the lawyers in this state.