Top 20 Tips for Year-End Success

There’s a simple formula for year-end success. And a successful year-end is the key to your new year potential (double bonus)!

Read on to learn how to make your year-end evaluation process constructive, consistent, and compliant, with our top 20 tips for year-end success!

Year-end reviews are critical for every high-performing organization. But an optimal year-end review process requires the right intent and focus, and is just one piece of a consistent year-round approach of regular reviews and check-ins. In fact, year-end reviews aimed at simply administering human resources decisions (such as pay raises, bonuses, demotions, and terminations) are not only ineffective on their own—they can be counter-productive, limiting employee innovation and creativity, fostering a competitive environment, and destroying morale. 

A number of high-profile organizations (like GE, Microsoft, and others) have actually upended their year-end review processes over complaints about their "rank and yank" systems that caused HR to focus more on the process than the goal, opting instead to adopt regular supervisor check-ins (either formally, via bespoke apps or internal systems, or informally, over coffee breaks). 

A workplace where an employee's future (or lack thereof) at an organization is judged based on a looming year-end meeting is not a happy workplace. But abolishing year-end reviews is not the solution either.

Instead, regular supervisor check-ins throughout the year should always be a priority, regardless of the identified performance evaluation process. Beyond that, well-designed and executed year-end reviews (along with their friend, the mid-year review) are necessary to provide consistency to the employee engagement process. They provide a regular and reliable opportunity for supervisor and team member alike to discuss and assess progress on employee goals, collaboratively address and/or check-in on action plans, and proactively discuss performance concerns and challenges. 

Performance reviews also help document employee performance and related conversations, which helps protect the organization in the event of an employee termination. In wrongful termination cases, performance reviews are often the only documentation employers have that they consistently communicated with an employee about their performance.  

Needless to say, year-end reviews should not be the first time employees receive feedback about their performance, nor should an employee's future hinge on the outcome of their performance review. 

As we previously shared, mid-year reviews are necessary for successful year-end reviews. And this two-part process is made even more effective with regular supervisor check-ins to discuss performance, progress on goals, and concerns. One of the employee engagement tips we regularly share with clients is if it can be mentioned, it can be managed. So providing frequent opportunities to mention performance needs and expectations on both the employer and employee side only enhances employee management. It’s a win-win!

With that said, there are simple and effective ways for employers to make year-end reviews more successful—and less painful—than their reputation often suggests. 

Below is a handy year-end review checklist to help make sure your organization is on the right track.

THE TOP 20 TIPS FOR YEAR-END SUCCESS

Tips for Employers

Before employers embark on the performance evaluation process, it's critical to ensure they've got the following covered: 

1. Follow a Consistent Template. Every performance evaluation within the organization should follow a consistent template and format that includes an employee self-assessment followed by a corresponding supervisor assessment. Strong design begins with consistency!
   (If you don’t have a template, contact us!)

2. Establish Clear Expectations. Make sure team members receive clear communications and information on how self-assessments should be filled out, as well as criteria that will be used for evaluations by supervisors, so team members know what to expect (and what to do)!

3. Train the Evaluators. Don’t take for granted that supervisors will automatically conduct great performance reviews. In fact, reviews can be quite difficult and, at times, awkward to conduct. Employers should train supervisors how to conduct reviews that are specific, honest, comprehensive, clear, and—most importantly—objective and non-discriminatory. 

4. Ensure Employees Have Position Descriptions. Every employee should have a position description (which is different from a job posting!) that outlines the essential functions of their job. This position description should be the guide for the performance evaluation process, lending to a discussion about the employee's performance on each essential function.
   (If you don’t know the difference between a job posting and a position description, we’re happy to guide you through it!)

5. Conduct Timely Reviews. Between completing the self-assessment, completing the corresponding supervisor assessment, and scheduling and conducting review meetings, the year-end review process takes time! Begin the process early (no later than early November, and ideally in October) to ensure reviews are completed before mid-December, when folks start to take time off for the holidays (and your Board is meeting to approve next year’s budget, which should include salary changes resulting from the year-end review process)! 

6. Don’t Over-Hype the Review. Don’t get us wrong, we love performance reviews (in fact, we’re total nerds about them). But they are not everything. Entire personnel decisions should not be based on the outcome of one review. Instead, as noted above, this should be the latest in a series of an ongoing, year-round, super comfortable employee engagement process with performance evaluation baked in. So keep formal and informal performance-related conversations with employees frequent and consistent, so that by the time the performance review comes, it’s just an easy part of an ongoing conversation and, ideally, there are no surprises (or at least only good ones—in the form of bonuses, salary increases and/or promotions)! 

7. Debrief with Supervisors Following Reviews. Meet with supervisors to discuss performance reviews, uncover any common trends or feedback, and identify team members with low performance for additional follow-up. Consider placing team members with concerning and/or consistently poor performance on a formal performance improvement plan (PIP).
   (And if you need help with employee engagement and/or a good PIP, contact us!)

Tips for Supervisors

Below are some tips for supervisors engaging in the performance review process:

1. Use the Position Description. Few tools in an organization are as value-packed as the Position Description (PD).  Review the employee’s PD and the Essential Functions contained in it in advance of the meeting. Evaluate performance based on the Essential Functions against actual performance. Be prepared to discuss the employee’s performance with clarity and specificity. A great PD makes this easy!
   (If you don’t have a PD template, reach out and we’ll provide the best available!)

2. Reference Prior Evaluations. Supervisors should review the most recent performance evaluation (if applicable), specifically focusing on areas for improvement and employee goals as outlined in those prior reviews.

3. Be Specific. Keep employee feedback specific, including examples of performance that was valued, what the employee should continue doing, what the employee should start doing, and anything the employee should stop doing (or do differently). Provide concrete examples of performance to share with the employee. Always track back to Essential Functions in the PD.

4. Do Not Neglect the Strengths. Focus on (and begin with) employee strengths. While it is critical to discuss areas for improvement, focusing on strengths as well will motivate the employee to grow. 

5. Be Direct. Don’t dance around performance issues. Honesty, clarity, and specificity are critical. Be direct and clear about inadequate performance, as well as how an employee is expected to improve their performance (and, if necessary, a warning that consequences may follow if their performance does not improve).

6. Don't be a Jerk. Performance reviews can be tough for supervisors and employees alike (ideally, they aren’t, but they can be). Avoid a critical tone, sarcasm, defensiveness, or jokes about an employee's performance. Keep the discussion professional and kind. When in doubt, default towards a dispassionate focus on facts.  This helps keep the process as professional as possible.

7. Seek Solutions. If an employee expresses concern about successful performance of their Essential Functions and/or goals, work with them on developing practical solutions (and check in regularly following the meeting to ensure they are sticking to the plan!).  Let them know you are there to support them in succeeding. Remind them that you both share the same goal: success for them and the organization!

8. Be Objective. Basing performance reviews on subjective criteria (e.g., general effectiveness) rather than specific criteria leaves room for conscious and unconscious bias to creep in, and can subject an employer to liability. Specific feedback based on consistent standards is essential to effective and compliant evaluations. 

9. Keep it Comfortable. Environments have energy. Create a comfortable environment for a comfortable conversation. Hold the conversation face-to-face (even if virtual) and in a private place to facilitate a more positive conversation.

10. Keep it Conversational. Remember, this is a two-way conversation. Do not dominate the conversation. Instead, facilitate a free-flowing discussion between the supervisor and the employee. 

11. Practice Active Listening. Listen closely to what the employee says, paraphrasing and asking for more information where appropriate to ensure a correct understanding. 

12. Document the Discussion. Take notes! Document the important points made in the discussion. Remember, this will be on record for any personnel decisions that may be made due to performance issues. Rather than constantly writing during the conversation (which can be uncomfortable for the employee), spend a few minutes immediately after the meeting making notes on the conversation. It’s critical to take notes as soon as the meeting ends while the observations remain real-time and fresh in your mind.

13. Follow up. Don't let the performance reviews be the only time you discuss employee performance! Check in regularly to see how the employee is progressing on the established goals, objectives, and timeframes.
    (Need help with your year-round employee engagement and review process?  Contact us!)

There you have it—20 steps to year-end success!  While it will take effort on behalf of your organization’s management to follow the process outlined here, there are few things more important than taking care of the people who take care of your important work! Employee engagement is the name of the game—every year-end, but especially at the end of 2020!

If you need help with any of the above, don’t be shy about reaching out and connecting with us. If we can help you with a tip, tool, or other resource, we’ll be happy to do so! Just click below to email us directly.

So...About 2020...

Normally, we’d say “Happy Mid-Year!” but our “normal” mid-year update feels anything but normal.

But good news!  A year from now everything will be different.

How do we know? Two reasons (at least)!

• First, things are changing so rapidly that it seems inevitable.

• Second, our clients are taking massive action to create serious and sustainable social impact during these unprecedented times (and we hope you are, too)!

It has been our privilege to work with them to design, build, and grow a future that is more just, equitable, safe, healthy, and sustainable.   

From leading brands to family offices, and from renowned foundations to multinational NGOs, we’ve been delighted to help an incredible roster of clients design, build, implement, and scale their social impact work. Read on for more—and don’t miss the Mid-Year Checklist YOU can use right now—a little “nifty gifty” from us to you.

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Here's more...

It goes without saying that we hope you and yours are healthy and well during these unprecedented times.

Our growing team is grateful to have been hard at work supporting amazing clients on work that is more important than ever. Some of that work includes:

• Pivoting Programs For Major Impact - As public health and racial justice issues surface with acute need and focus, we have been humbled and honored to support our clients in their efforts to enhance what they are already doing and help them grow toward doing even more.

• Multi-National Governance, Compliance, Legal and Operations - We worked with a renowned multinational NGO in helping their teams operate with clarity and simplicity as they grow their in-country work.  Services included multi-government grant compliance, fully synthesized for ease of day-to-day operations, and streamlined operational tools to facilitate the grant-supported work by multiple international teams. 

• Remote Work in the Age of COVID-19 - We’ve been helping organizations transition fully (and quickly) to remote work while maintaining strong employee engagement and culture enhancing practices. 

• Teams & Employee Engagement - Great team culture doesn’t start or end with a ropes course, retreat, or Zoom happy hour (but those are great when you can do them!). It starts and only grows well when built on simple, clear, & actionable policies, procedures, and practices. We’re helping clients enhance their HR policies and their day-to-day implementation, along with new performance practices, leave and sick time options in light of COVID-19. 

• High Performing Boards - Leadership starts at the top, which is why we continue to see incredible demand for Board growth, development, and engagement support, including best practices for keeping Board engagement strong when it occurs entirely remotely (yes, it’s absolutely possible!).

• CEO Transitions - We’ve been aiding in the successful transition of two new CEOs—one of a large well-known family foundation and one of a dynamic operating charity that works in one of the most exciting emerging issues of the modern workforce. 

• Social Impact Everywhere - We are excited to be helping one of the most prolific and beloved global brands reimagine the work of its corporate foundation to ensure local impact when and where it matters most.

• Supporting Policy in 2020 & Beyond - We are helping policymakers as they address massive fiscal solvency issues, debate the social contract, try to evolve the future of work, and finally have a long-overdue conversation about race and equity, all with the 2020 election as a backdrop.

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Need help with any of the above...

...or any of our other services? Connect with us!

Why Mid-Year Reviews are the Secret to Year-End Success

Slower summer months are the perfect time to get the jump on a strong year-end. Yes, really!

While many organizations conduct annual, year-end performance reviews for their employees, mid-year reviews, while less common, can help build great organizational culture. 

Mid-year reviews (or a “lighter” version, the “mid-year touch base”) are an important tool for employers, providing supervisors and employees an opportunity to assess and discuss employee performance and progress against goals, proactively discuss any concerns and/or challenges, and collaboratively develop action plans—all before the usually more intensive and salary-related year-end review process.

This post will cover the following questions (handy hyperlinks below so you can skip ahead if you’d like!):

What is a Mid-Year Review?

Why Should We Conduct Mid-Year Reviews?

What are Some Benefits of Mid-Year Reviews?

How Should We Conduct Mid-Year Reviews?

How Should We Conduct Mid-Year Reviews with Virtual Employees?

Exciting stuff, right? We agree! So let’s get to it!

What is a Mid-Year Review?

A mid-year review is a process whereby supervisors formally connect with employees toward the end of Q2 (we recommend June) to evaluate goals and assess employee progress on essential functions.  Those essential functions should be easily found in each employee’s position description (if you don’t have those, please call or email us ASAP!).  During the mid-year review, in addition to assessing performance, supervisors can coach employees and make any necessary performance changes before the official year-end review process, which is typically more in-depth.

Mid-year reviews can be detailed processes similar to year-end reviews, including written self-assessments by employees and formal feedback and evaluation from supervisors. Alternatively, the mid-year review can take the form of a less detailed and sometimes equally effective “mid-year touch base.” Mid-year touch bases are a “review-lite” and provide an opportunity for employees and supervisors to have a more general performance related conversation, discuss the team member’s progress on previously established goals, and provide top level feedback and key focus areas for the months ahead, leading to a strong and simplified entry into the more involved year-end review process.

To keep things simple, we will refer to both as mid-year reviews—but you should know that the structure for this process is flexible and different formats work for different kinds of organizations!

Why Should we Conduct Mid-Year Reviews?

Top line answer: A mid-year review is a great way to be intentional about keeping the annual performance conversation going in a little-to-no pressure way and builds culture in the process.  Win-win.

Here’s more:

The year-end review should not be the first or only time employees have an opportunity to formally engage with their supervisors about their performance, nor should it be the first time supervisors proactively convene with employees to discuss concerns or provide meaningful feedback. 

In fact, we will go so far as to say that mid-year reviews give annual performance reviews far greater purpose and focus. When an entire year passes between reviews, it is difficult to achieve meaningful, substantive, actionable feedback and results. Instead, year-end reviews are often reduced to formalities in place to simply check the HR box. And the typical inclusion of compensation in the year-end review tends to ratchet up the intensity of that conversation even further. 

When mid-year reviews are conducted, less time lapses between reviews, the ongoing conversation about performance remains more fluid, and employees have a reasonable timeframe during which to make progress and report back on their goals. The mid-year review is also an opportunity to note where support and additional resources might be necessary, positioning supervisors and employees for a productive, focused, and intentional year-end conversation. 

Additionally, while year-end reviews often focus on past performance, mid-year reviews are a good place to focus on the future and develop action plans for improved performance through the remainder of the year. Perhaps most important of all, teams that engage in more frequent reviews benefit from an improved culture of ongoing dialogue about employee performance, allowing it to remain an open and comfortable topic rather than a foreboding year-end summoning.

What are Some Benefits of Mid-Year Reviews?

Still need convincing? Below are some benefits the mid-year review process offers to employers and team members alike:

• Feedback opportunity. Supervisors have an opportunity to give feedback to employees on their performance, including complimenting good work (boosting morale and motivating employees through the end-of-year cycle), and discussing performance challenges and how to rectify them.

• Open dialogue. Employees have an opportunity to express issues, concerns, or specific desires for growth and development with their supervisors. 

• Documentation of performance concerns. Supervisors can proactively document performance issues and that they were discussed with the employee (as these can become especially relevant during the year-end process but should be documented well in advance). In chronic or acute cases, supervisors can introduce a performance improvement plan (PIP) during the mid-year review process, and use the year-end review as a time to assess whether expectations as outlined in the PIP have been met.  

• Separated from compensation. The mid-year review process is separated from compensation (unlike the year-end review process), allowing for candid conversation detached from the pressures of compensation questions or concerns.

• Simplified year-end review process. Mid-year reviews give employees an opportunity to build on skills or correct problems by the time year-end reviews approach. They also provide more structure to year-end reviews, which flow from the assessments made and feedback offered in the mid-year reviews.

How Should We Conduct Mid-Year Reviews?

Our recommended approach to mid-year reviews is as follows: 

• Employee Self Assessment: For a formal mid-year review (rather than a touch-base), employees fill out a detailed self-assessment, describing their performance against the essential functions outlined in their position descriptions as well as their progress on the goals they identified at year-end. In the case of a touch-base, employees fill out an assessment that is more brief and less detailed, responding to key questions related to their performance and progress.

• Supervisor Feedback: For a formal mid-year review, supervisors respond with a written evaluation of employees, rating them on various aspects of their performance. In the case of a touch base, supervisors typically discuss their feedback in-person and the conversation is documented (the following step). 

• Meet to Discuss: In either case, employees and supervisors meet, using position descriptions and the employee self-assessments from year-end reviews as a guide for a discussion around year-to-date performance. They share their assessments of employee performance, discussing positive work as well as areas for improvement, and review employee progress on goals (previously established during year-end reviews) as well as opportunities for growth and development. Noteworthy issues and/or discussion points are documented and stored in employee files, and serve as an important focus/discussion point during year-end reviews. 

• Maintain Documentation. In all cases, the mid-year materials should be available for any intervening position changes and/or performance improvement issues prior to the year-end review process. Observations and/or notes recorded during the mid-year process can serve as ongoing discussion points during the year-end review process.

How Should We Conduct Mid-Year Reviews with Virtual Employees?

Needless to say, many employees are working remotely in light of concerns around the spread of COVID-19. However, mid-year reviews are now more important than ever. Given the current circumstances, a formal review (even if it’s virtual!) will give employees the opportunity to discuss any hindrances to performing their work remotely. Furthermore, employees may feel particularly out of touch while outside of the physical work environment. Supervisors should engage in regular touch bases and 1:1 conversations in addition to mid-year reviews! 

Tips for supervisors conducting virtual employee reviews:

• (Virtual) Face-to-Face is Best. Conduct the mid-year review via video chat rather than phone. Doing so makes for a more candid conversation as it helps to build comfort and connection between employees and supervisors, and allows supervisors to pick up on nonverbal cues. It also communicates to the employee that these conversations are a priority. 

• Let Them Go First. Ask employees about their remote working arrangements—what is working well, and what challenges are they facing? Offer support where possible. 

• Invite Honest Feedback. Request feedback on your own leadership style.  Perhaps your communications and expectations are not as clear in a remote environment as they are in-office. Staff may require extra communication and/or support while working remotely and may not feel comfortable voicing it. So invite the conversation!

• Be Focused and Friendly. Think about how you can facilitate an open conversation through virtual means—and in that regard, consider these pro tips: 

  • Pro Tip 1: Silence notifications. Diverting your attention may communicate to the employee that you’re not invested in the conversation.

  • Pro Tip 2: Pay attention to your own body language. Are you hunched over, with folded arms? Are you avoiding eye contact? Negative nonverbal cues can stop an open conversation in its tracks. Keep it friendly and comfortable for everyone with your body language.

  • Pro Tip 3: Remain compassionate. This is a difficult time for many, and individuals may be distracted during the work day because they have to care for children or family members, they do not have dedicated work spaces at home, their partner has been laid off, or they are otherwise struggling due to personal circumstances. They also may be feeling lonely, anxious, or depressed. Create a space where they are comfortable discussing the challenges they are facing, and practice empathy.

Ready to go!

If you have questions or need help facilitating the mid-year review process, contact us. We love this stuff!

Happy mid-year!

Beyond Advisers and Social Impact Law Featured in ABA Journal

Beyond Advisers was featured in the April/May 2020 issue of the ABA Journal, where founder Scott Curran addressed how lawyers can both make money and do good through social impact work.

Check out the article below for more!

Corporate lawyers can help clients change the world—and bill for it—with this growing practice area

Jenny B. Davis

Ten years ago, New York City corporate lawyer Chintan Panchal left BigLaw to found a different kind of firm—one where he could use Wall Street-style deal structures to make a difference in the world and get paid for doing it.

“Everyone was like, ‘This doesn’t make sense, it’s just philanthropy—you’re going to have to get back to doing real work,’” he recalls. But I said, ‘No, I think this is the future.’”

Panchal was right. Today RPCK Rastegar Panchal boasts two offices—in New York City and Vienna—and a list of clients merging mission with for-profit business methods in areas like public finance, fund formation and social impact investing. Panchal regularly works with advisory firms, private equity firms, family offices and others involved in impact-focused investing, and he’s even helped entrepreneurs bring solar power to areas of sub-Saharan Africa through cellphone chip-based payment systems.

Dubbed by some as a “fourth sector” of entity organization along with private industry, government and nonprofits, so-called social enterprises are often mentioned in context with such buzzy words as “blended-value” and “for-benefit.” The goal of these companies and impact investing is to generate revenue while prioritizing social missions, including the “triple bottom line” of people, planet and profit.

What social enterprise and impact investing is not, Panchal says, is a specific asset class, deal type or business structure. “Rather, it’s an approach—it’s a philosophy of doing business,” he says. “Taking a dollar and turning it into two is important, and it’s at the core of this, but the reason you do it and the direction you do it and the context in which you do it and the big and little decisions you make along the way are informed by this notion that you are driving progress toward solutions to some of the biggest challenges that we face as a society.”

Ultimately, he says, the goal is approaching social problems as opportunities “and using market dynamics, the profit imperative, as the engine to address that challenge.”

Even nonprofits have become players in this for-profit world, says Scott M. Curran, former general counsel to the Clinton Foundation and founder of Beyond Advisers, a Chicago-based social impact consulting firm. “Nonprofits are increasingly considering financing models that look a lot more like private sector activities, so they’re not dependent on giving-based models of support like grants and donations,” he says.

A blended approach

Lawyers who practice in the social enterprise and investment impact space say their structures vary depending on the deal, but all agree: This is not pro bono legal work. “It’s no longer about making money or doing good, it’s about making money and doing good,” Scott Curran says. And there seems to be an ever-increasing amount of both in this sector. Impact investing assets under management are increasing at an estimated 13% per year among active impact investors, according to a 2018 survey by the Global Impact Investing Network. The same survey found impact investments overwhelmingly meet or exceed investors’ expectations for both social and environmental impact and financial return. (However, not all impact investors actually expect market-rate returns.)

Many corporate firms already provide the type of services typically involved in social enterprise and impact investment law through existing practice areas like finance, tax and entity formation. While these areas may already be engaged in the impact space, it’s common for the work to be fragmented, uncoordinated efforts spread across many practice areas.

But as demand increases, many law firms are moving to form cohesive and distinct practice groups and working groups to better organize, scale and market their expertise. “If clients demand it and if talent demands it—and they are—the most competitive firms will simply have to have it,” Scott Curran says. “My message to the legal community is that you need to be building this, not just reacting to it.”

But New York University School of Law professor Deborah Kay Burand, co-director of the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, cautions that success in the social enterprise and impact investment space requires more than just a mastery of corporate legal skills or a marketing alliance.

“A lawyer who is working in this area must develop emotional intelligence and the ability to ask the right questions of their clients to find out what they’re trying to achieve and how they want to act in pursuit of those goals,” she says. “If you just say, ‘Oh, I know how to make sure you’ll get your money back in a transaction,’ you might have missed the whole reason the client is there.”

Refining the model

Orrick recognized the market movement early and was among the first to organize a cohesive impact approach. In 2017, the firm appointed Perry Teicher, a lawyer in its New York City office, as its first dedicated impact finance attorney. Teicher leads the firmwide Impact Finance and Investment practice, and Orrick bills this group as the first of its kind to be formed by a global law firm.

Not only does Teicher personally practice in this area—he’s counseled Blue Forest Conservation on the development and structure of the Forest Resilience Bond and has advised a state pension plan on becoming an anchor investor in a major global impact investment fund—but he also coordinates such efforts firmwide. The goal, he says, is to integrate, coordinate and support the myriad touchpoints involved in these often-complex transactions.

Teicher says having a clear structure in place is key. “There’s a lot of value in having a practice group that’s structured; that says there’s a home for this type of work.”

Chicago-based Chapman and Cutler is another firm that formalized its efforts in this area with a Social Finance and Impact Investing cross-disciplinary team.

“Chapman and Cutler was founded over 100 years ago with a substantial public finance practice, and over time it has evolved into a firm that is focused on all areas of finance. So for us, it made perfect sense to take that expertise and use it in the social impact space and to be more cognizant of the work that we and our clients were already doing in the social impact space,” partner Amy Cobb Curran says. She is a leader in social impact bonds, often called “pay for success” bonds, and since 2014, she’s represented investors and others in finance deals to address such social issues as early childhood education, homelessness reduction and recidivism reduction.

One transaction she worked on in 2016 involved young people caught up in both the criminal justice and the foster care systems. It was an experience she describes as both a great mental challenge and eye-opening. “These deals are hard,” she says, “but it is so rewarding to help, in some small way, the folks that deal with these social challenges every day.”

Amy Cobb Curran says her firm was particularly well-prepared to home in on this sector because of its breadth of expertise across finance and tax. “In the impact space in particular, there are a lot of tax considerations that need to be layered on top of the general finance work.” But she adds that this expertise isn’t exclusive to larger law firms. “Any law firm can do this, and any firm should do this,” she says. “At the end of the day, shouldn’t we all be striving to make an impact?”

Those in midsize and boutique firms agree. “Like in business, there are a lot of social impact organizations that occupy a middle-market space, or they’re startups or smaller, so we are a good fit for them,” says Chad Buttell, a partner at Patzik, Frank & Samotny, a 35-lawyer firm in Chicago.

Buttell says he’s handling increasingly more impact work, even from clients not typically active in that space. “I just had a conversation with a startup client who said, ‘In addition to our business proposition and the return we’re trying to generate for our investors, we want to put together a social impact platform’—that’s pretty exciting.”

Catering to clients

Whether it’s a solo in a shared space or a corporate lawyer in a high-rise, Burand says the market is simply demanding more lawyers who do this work, and they’re answering the call. Over the past decade, she says the practice area has experienced a “sea change,” and she co-founded the Impact Investing Legal Working Group to bring lawyers who are spread across this diverse space together through annual conferences.

The first meeting, held in 2014, was small enough to take place in a law firm conference room. This summer, the IILWG will co-host with the Grunin Center at NYU Law its seventh conference, and Burand expects attendance to top 500.

As more and more existing clients decide to invest and expand in a more holistic way, Burand explains, the legal work will only increase. “It’s no longer a practice that you’re choosing, it’s a practice that’s coming to you.”

Lawyers agree that standing out in the impact investing market doesn’t just benefit a firm’s bottom line, it also helps a firm recruit and retain top talent.

“Law students today want to be doing complex work that’s meaningful, and having the opportunity to do that where the ethos is embedded in the firm is really powerful,” Teicher says.

Many students decide they want to enter the impact investing space after gaining exposure and experience while in law school, Burand adds. In a survey she conducted in 2017-18 measuring offerings by accredited American law schools in this space, over 30% of responding schools were supporting legal scholarship, offering classes (including experiential courses like transactional clinics) and sponsoring extracurricular student activities—and sometimes all three—that address social entrepreneurship and impact investing, she says.

“The firms that can offer a practice that is not only financially lucrative but also meaningful will be golden—they’ll be able to recruit the best legal talent and hold on to that talent,” she says. “If you can engage their hearts and minds, you’re going to have a field of lawyers who can serve impact-driven clients well and help the firm do even better, and that’s a double and even triple bottom line for the law firms moving into this space.”

This article was originally published in the April/May 2020 issue under the headline, “Practicing Social Impact: In this growing practice area, corporate lawyers can help clients change the world—and bill for it.”

Here's to 2020...and Beyond!

2019 was a year of exponential growth and social impact success—for Beyond, for our clients, and we hope also for you!

Here’s a quick look at our 2019:

• Our clients continue to amaze, inspire, and change the world across industries and sectors.

• We help them in virtually every aspect of their organization and work—from their Board to operations to program work.

• GCLO is our sweet spot. What the heck is that?  Read on!

• Our team is relentlessly focused on simplification and real, needle-moving social impact at scale!

• We’re expanding networks of impact by making connections between, among, and on behalf of our clients and their work.

Amazing Clients. Inspiring Work.

While we (still) don’t advertise who our clients are, you know them, love them, and are inspired by them.

Here’s a bit of what they—and we—have been up to:

• A-List Social Impact - We continue to see great demand by those with the biggest profiles and platforms to infuse social impact into everything they do, moving beyond “checkbook charity” or “celebrity endorsements” and into designing measurable impact into all facets of their lives, from their business pursuits to their family foundations. We help them design, build, and grow this inspiring work. 

• Big Business & Real Social Impact - CSR is doing good after a profit is made. Social Impact is doing good with the business model itself asprofit is made. This year, we saw the Business Roundtable’s shift to stakeholder (vs. shareholder) primacy. This week, Larry Fink and Blackrock emphasized that climate change has become a defining factorin companies’ long-term prospects and will fundamentally reshape finance. So from paradigm-shifting business strategies to supply chain sustainability to founder and corporate nonprofits adjacent to some of the most beloved brands, we’re helping private sector clients design, build and grow their work for streamlined, simplified, scalable social impact using the business model itself.

• Not Your Average Family Offices - Sleepy family offices passively funding their favorite causes are giving way to inspiring new founders driven to leverage their time, talent, and treasure for maximum social impact. Ambition driven by urgency to make a real difference on the most pressing issues of our time in innovative ways leads our family office clients to move from ideas to action with specificity, clarity, and purpose.

• Law Firm Leadership - As we often say, “nobody is doing it without their lawyers!” Lawyers and law firms from “Small Law” to “Big Law” (and everywhere in between) play a deeply important role in guiding and supporting dynamic social impact at scale. We help motivated law firmsthat understand this important role design, build and grow their firm’s approach to social impact at scale—reflecting the best of what they’re already doing in new, scalable, and profitable ways that proactively engage and delight their clients and talent alike!

• GCLO - Our Sweet Spot! - Governance, Compliance, Legal, and Operations of a nonprofit or social enterprise from the Board, to Executive Leadership, Operations Teams, and Program Staff.  This is where we spend the majority of our time. It’s no small focus or task. Our goal is to help the most ambitious growth-stage organization, program, and/or partnership simplify and streamline its approach to social impact scalability using the best advice, guidance, and tools.

• Expanding Networks and Building Partnerships - We are increasingly connecting clients with the wider community of social impact work whenever it makes sense. This has resulted in some incredible connections, partnerships, and more efficient and effective approaches to social impact at scale.  

We help clients plan big, build simple, and scale for impact.

Changing the world is hard. We make it easier. 

Our most popular services in 2019:

• Board Growth & Development -  An experienced, diverse, and engaged Board is key to the scalability and sustainability of any great organization. We help clients navigate a Board Growth & Development process to design, engage, and grow their Boards for maximum impact.

• General Counsel - From Board meetings to day-to-day program teams and every business operation in between (including LOTS of HR and contract review!), we make good governance and compliance simple and seamless (and even a little bit fun)!  We don’t replace law firms (and aren’t one), but we reduce the need for one, and make sure the use of them is efficient and effective when necessary.

• Executive Coaching & Counsel - We serve as experienced, trusted, independent advisers to our clients’ Board Chairs, CEOs, and other executives. Having an informed, engaged, and trusted team you can call on when new opportunities (or challenges) arise is important. It’s our privilege to be that resource to clients.

• Program Design & Development - We help our clients, design, build, change, and grow their organization’s work to maximize impact and scale their successes. With a team deeply experienced in global philanthropy and on the leading edge of social enterprises, we know what works and are uniquely positioned to help design, develop, and pivot programs, partnerships, and initiatives for impact. 

• Advocacy Strategies - Funders and organizations seeking to create positive change through public policy turn to our team to help develop smart, forward-thinking strategies at the state and federal levels to tackle some of the most challenging issues by looking at new ways to build power and winning outcomes.

• Principal-Level Storytelling - From commencement addresses and TED Talks to OpEds and full-fledged books, our Principal Messaging & Communications Team works with founders, CEOs, and executive-level leadership tell the stories of their organizations, their work, and their lives!

That’s just where we were busiest in 2019.  There’s a lot more to what we do. Check it out here.

The experience and talent of our team... 

are what make us unique, our services awesome, and our clients better off when we finish our work than when we started.

We hope you already know them and love them, but as a reminder, here’s who they are!

• Scott Curran - Social Impact Strategy General & Strategic Counsel Program & Initiative Design

• Zayneb Shaikley - Strategic Counsel; Human Resources; Partnerships; Commercial Transactions

• Joe Ballard - Program Design; Impact Assessment; Strategic Planning; Development Strategy

• Steve Rinehart - Principal Messaging & Communications

• David Horwich - Advocacy Campaigns & Philanthropic and Political Counsel

• Jim Jacoby - Brand Experience; Digital Infrastructure; Experience Design

• Scott Taitel - Social Impact Measurement, Innovation & Investment

We also supplement our core team by engaging a wider circle of some of our closest friends, colleagues, and collaborators who are renowned experts in their field. Their expertise includes everything from group facilitation and leadership development to social media marketing, graphic design, and event production.

WE HELP AMAZING PEOPLE CHANGE THE WORLD.

We’d love to help you, too!

If we aren’t already working together, let’s have a conversation about what we can do together in 2020! Shoot us an email at contact@beyondadvisers.com

Happy Mid-Year!

We hope you are having an awesome year and wanted to share some highlights of what has been keeping us busy in 2019.

Here’s a short version:

• Board Growth & Development - A great and engaged Board can make or break an organization, especially during pivotal growth stages. We've been helping multiple nonprofits navigate a Board Growth & Development process to design and engage their Boards for maximum impact.

• Great HR & Mid-Year Reviews - 'Tis the season to set your organization up for year-end success via a mid-year review process that seamlessly flows into the year-end review, planning, and budgeting process. It's important (and fun) work that multiple clients are undertaking. We hope your organization is doing this too!

• Landmark Legislation - Our team played a key role in passing landmark restorative justice legislation in Illinois and is helping other states and organizations design and launch important policy and advocacy campaigns.

• Commencement Addresses, NY Times Best Sellers & TV Too! - Our Principal Messaging & Communications Team has been helping high profile speakers, authors and writers create inspirational and amazing content!

• And More - Read on for more about what we've been up to or just drop us a note! We'd love to hear from you!

Here’s a longer version:

Board Growth & Development

An active and engaged Board of Directors is critical for long-term, scalable, and sustainable success. Most growth-stage organizations struggle to grow their original founders board into a more dynamic, diversified, and fully engaged Board. That's where we come in! We use the same simplified and easy-to-action approach we've used with some of the most high profile nonprofit Boards in the world to help organizations comfortably grow and engage their Board. Recruiting new Board members is one thing - onboarding and engaging them effectively over time is another. We help do both! If you'd like to discuss your Board, let us know!

Great HR & Mid-Year Reviews!

We know that few people get really excited about HR...but we do! And we've been really busy this year helping clients develop policies, procedures, and simplified practices to engage and motivate their teams toward peak performance.

• Mid-Year Reviews. The secret to awesome year-end reviews begins with the mid-year review (or at least the less formal mid-year touch base). And several of our clients are in the middle of them right now! Mid-year reviews during often slower summer months provide a simple, low-pressure opportunity to engage with each team member and to review essential functions, performance expectations, and goals. Year-end reviews are right around the corner (we recommend starting in October - yes, really!). If you want to finish the year seamlessly and efficiently focused on the exciting new year ahead, the mid-year review process is the best way to start!
  Need help with or want to talk about your mid-year and/or year-end reviews? Let us know!

• Make HR Awesome! It's important to have strong policies and procedures in place (including an Employee Handbook and Code of Conduct) and to review and revise them on an annual basis to ensure compliance with new and changing obligations. We have seen tremendous demand on this front from clients. But beyond just having the policies, we also recommend annual trainings, including the ever-important anti-harassment training, which we recommend (and some states require) you conduct annually! While we know some employee trainings can be a drag, ours are short, sweet, and awesome! We love helping clients update their policies and train their teams in simple and fun sessions that can be conducted remotely and/or in-person!
  Want to talk about your HR practices and/or trainings? Shoot us an email!

Landmark Legislation

In June, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed HB1438 into law, which was one of the most sweeping criminal justice reform bills to ever pass a state legislature. Dave Horwich, Beyond Advisers' expert in advocacy and political engagement, together with JCL Strategies, developed and managed the advocacy campaign that led to this monumental legislation. Through its legalization of the sale of adult-use cannabis, the law, passed with bipartisan support, includes automatic expungement of records for cannabis offenses, thereby expunging over 700,000 records and opening better pathways to jobs and civic engagement.  It also creates a social equity program that provides benefits directly to those communities that have been disproportionately affected by previous legislation.

We also worked on other exciting public policy matters:

• Civics Education - Earlier this year, we worked with one of the largest social innovators on the planet to create a national, multi-year roadmap to elevate civics education standards through state legislative action.

• State-Led Climate Change Action - In response to a request from a funder, we are developing strategic engagement options in a southeastern state around climate-related issues and beginning the process of building out their long-term program in the state. 

• Multi-Entity, Cross-Sector Public Policy - We are currently working with a number of leading nonprofit organizations in one large Midwestern state to align their efforts to advance a menu of public policy priorities through collective action.

Changing public policy can be one of the most effective ways to deliver social impact at scale. If you are working to launch campaigns that affect public policy change at the local, state, or national level, let us know!

Commencement Addresses, NY Times Best Sellers & TV Too!

During graduation season, Steve Rinehart, the leader of our Principal Messaging & Communications team, assisted our client, a world champion athlete, with commencement remarks for a major university. This was in addition to Steve’s concurrent work supporting multiple NY Times Best Selling authors on their books and television projects. Have a high-profile founder, leader, and/or principal who wants to enhance and amplify their message and impact? We'd be happy to discuss their vision, mission, and message. Feel free to reach out! 

We help amazing people change the world.

We'd love to help you, too!

If we aren’t already working together, let’s chat about what we can do together during the rest of 2019 and Beyond!
Shoot us an email at contact@beyondadvisers.com

Here’s to 2019…and Beyond!

2018 went by in a blink. Time flies when you’re having fun serving great clients!

Here’s a short version of our 2018:

• Our clients are amazing, inspiring, and changing the world across industries and sectors.

• We’re helping them in virtually every aspect of their organization and work.

• Our team grew!

And here’s a longer version:

Amazing Clients. Inspiring Work.

While we don’t advertise who our clients are, here’s a bit of what they - and we - have been up to:

• Family Office Big Bet - We’ve helped an audaciously motivated family office design and build the next great big bet in cross-sector social impact (philanthropy, private sector, education, and beyond!). Stay tuned for big news on this one in 2019! 

• A-List Social Impact - Some of our favorite icons are scaling the work of their foundations and nonprofit interests while also designing, building, and deploying a wider social impact approach across all of their businesses, interests, and platforms.
  It’s been our joy to support and help them build compliant, well governed, measurable work that can scale and sustain over time!

• Private Sector Leaders Changing The World - We’ve supported some of the most influential businesses, brands and brains working to infuse their business models with dynamic social impact approaches.
  Far beyond CSR, corporate philanthropy, and pro bono alone, these businesses are motivating their teams and their markets by using their business models to do good while doing well. You’re going to see a lot more of this in 2019. We’re thrilled to be helping make it happen! 

• Law Firms Too! - That’s right…law firms. Lawyers. No joke. We’re unapologetically bullish that lawyers are the architects of social innovation. Nobody doing anything great is doing (or has ever done) it without lawyers. So we help lawyers and law firms better speak and practice social impact - which motivates and serves their clients and their talent. Look for more law firms to launch their (profit-generating) Social Impact & Innovation practice groups in 2019! Chances are good we helped them! And if your law firm is on this path, let us know...we can help!

• Dynamic Nonprofits - We’re supporting some of the most inspiring and rapidly scaling nonprofits working on some of the most important issues of our time. From dynamic and engaged boards, to financing models that support rapid growth, to helping with critically important details on extraordinary work being deployed nationwide and around the world, we provide some of the best guidance and tools to scale effectively. 

• Political Dynamos on the Rise - Through our “hidden” offering ofwww.socialimpactpolitics.com we’ve been delighted to provide guidance to some of the most exciting rising stars in public service who focus on positive social impact over partisanship or party politics. This is the future of politics. And we’re excited to be supporting those on the leading edge.

In 2018, we’ve seen quite clearly that the “usual suspects” in social impact are changing. The most dynamic leaders are no longer just politicians and philanthropists. We’re seeing with greater clarity than ever before that CEOs, celebrities, newcomers in philanthropy, and an entire generation are engaging as powerful voices for change.

It’s our privilege - and a whole lot of fun - to support them.

We help clients plan big, build simple, and scale for impact.
It’s hard work. We make it easier.

Our Most Popular Services in 2018:

• General Counsel - Most growth-stage nonprofits and social enterprises don’t have and can’t afford a general counsel, but wish they could. That’s where we come in!
  From the Board to program teams and everywhere in between (especially contract review and Human Resources this past year - wow!), we make good governance and compliance real, simple, and seamless.  We don’t replace law firms (and aren’t one), but we reduce the need for one, and make sure the use of them is far more efficient and effective.

• Strategic Counsel - $70,000 PowerPoint “Deliverables” often fail to deliver much at all. So we pick up where most strategic planning leaves off, diving in quickly and with focus to help our clients grow their organizations and their work to achieve specific, actionable, and measurable objectives. 

• Program Design & Development - Our team’s unmatched experience in global philanthropy and on the leading edge of social enterprises results in laser-focused pattern recognition and issue identification. We’ve seen what works and know why it does, so we are uniquely positioned to help design, develop, and pivot programs, partnerships, and initiatives for impact. From landscape mapping, to purposeful partnerships, to impact storytelling and “not your average fundraising and development” guidance, we assist clients in achieving clear targets quickly and effectively.

• Advocacy Strategies - For funders and organizations looking to create positive change through public policy, we’re developing smart, forward-thinking strategies at the state and federal levels to tackle some of the most intractable issues by looking at new ways to build power and winning outcomes.

That’s just where we were busiest in 2018.  There’s a lot more to what we do. Check it out here.

Our Team Grew!

The individual and collective experience and talent of our team is what makes us unique, our services awesome, and our clients better off when we finish our work than when we started.
We’re thrilled to have added the following members and their skills to our team this year:

• Zayneb Shaikley - Strategic Counsel; Human Resources; Partnerships; Commercial Transactions

• Joe Ballard - Program Design; Impact Assessment; Strategic Planning; Development Strategy

• Steve Rinehart - Principal Messaging & Communications

• David Horwich - Advocacy Campaigns & Philanthropic and Political Counsel

We help amazing people change the world.

We’d love to help you, too!

If we aren’t already working together, let’s have a big, bold, fun conversation about what we can do together in 2019! Shoot us an email at contact@beyondadvisers.com

"Beyond Pro Bono, Firms Put Do-Gooders in Top Positions"

Social Impact in the C-Suite of law firms is the future of how law firms do good!

Winston & Strawn recently created the C-Suite position of "Chief CSR Officer." The Legal Intelligencer contacted us for comment, asking whether we expect to see more of this in the law.  Boy, do we!

Check out the article below (especially last section) for more!
 

Beyond Pro Bono, Firms Put Do-Gooders in Top Positions

Lizzy McLellan, The Legal Intelligencer

Keeping up with their corporate clients, large law firms have set their eyes on charitable efforts beyond the traditional pro bono commitment. And one firm recently put the leader of those efforts in the C-suite.

In June, Julie Goodman became the first chief corporate social responsibility officer at Winston & Strawn, coordinating the firm's volunteer efforts and charitable giving. In shaping the role, Goodman said, she has looked to corporate clients, rather than other law firms—clients like Bank of America and Motorola. She said she doesn't know of any other law firms with a chief title for corporate social responsibility.

"We really need someone to pull it all together and look at it with more of a strategic point of view," Goodman said. "Law firms need to change like the rest of the business world."

Valentine Brown, partner and pro bono counsel at Duane Morris, agreed. She said positions like Goodman's are "the way of the future."

"Looking at social responsibility the same way that clients look at social responsibility is going to be necessary," Brown said. "It's more effective, and also clients are going to be looking for that."

Many firms, including her own, are already engaged in charitable activities other than pro bono, Brown said. But having a C-level executive overseeing those efforts highlights that commitment.

"Having a person in that role would help them demonstrate what they're already doing and present it in a way that's cohesive," Brown said. "It helps, especially in getting the internal actors in the firm to understand the importance of it. Also, it will help to show clients that it is something the firm takes seriously."

Unlike Brown, Goodman does not oversee pro bono, but she said she expects to work closely with Winston & Strawn's pro bono practice leaders, particularly when the firm has opportunities to volunteer nonlegal help for pro bono clients. She has been with the firm for 28 years, most recently having served in a human relations position before taking on her newest role.

Like any staff position, Goodman said, "there has to be a business driver" for adding a corporate social responsibility executive.

"It's important to clients, which makes it important to us," she said. "Another [reason] is to retain and attract the best talent ... our employees want to work for an organization that cares."

Chief by Another Name?

Goodman's title is unique, but many other firms have a person in charge of charitable work, sometimes including pro bono.

Bruce Gilchrist, the global citizenship chair at Hogan Lovells, oversees a team of 24 full-time employees dedicated to the firm's citizenship program. But he is also a full-time corporate and securities partner. The firm's citizenship program includes pro bono, volunteering, diversity and inclusion, sustainability and a matching program for charitable donations.

Firms may not need to dedicate an entire position to CSR leadership, he said. But the person who leads CSR should have authority at the firm.

"We've, I think, consciously wanted it to be partner-driven, and not outsourced [to an administrative position], but there's nothing wrong with outsourcing it," he said. "We made a conscious choice that it might need to be senior people to show other people that it's an important part of your experience and work for Hogan Lovells."

There's no one right model, said Reena Glazer, assistant director of the law firm pro bono project at the Pro Bono Institute. It depends on the firm's structure.

"Some of this goes to the professionalization of law firms," Glazer said—the implementation of corporate leadership models throughout the industry. "To the extent that a C-suite position lends gravitas ... that could be a good thing."

But if pro bono is put under a social responsibility umbrella, a CCSRO should not just be an administrative position, she noted.

"In many respects, running a pro bono program at a law firm, you're running the biggest practice group," she said.

Integrating pro bono with community service and charitable giving allows all of those functions to work more effectively, she said. But if executed improperly, it can muddy the waters.

"You want to be sure that the lines don't get blurred ... that you're not mushing in all of your volunteer and pro bono efforts," she said.

A Step Further

Still, even firms with a corporate social responsibility strategy may be behind the times.

"I think it's awesome. I applaud it. And I think it should go further," said Scott Curran of Beyond Advisers, speaking about Winston & Strawn's new position.

He said the rest of the business world has moved past corporate social responsibility into social impact—simply defined as using the business model itself to do good. Unlike pro bono, social impact produces revenue. A former general counsel for the Clinton Foundation, Curran now helps law firms, nonprofits and other businesses find ways to do good while making money.

"I love that the chief CSR officer is becoming real, but I think we have to leapfrog the title and call it the chief social impact officer," Curran said. "I'm here to be a catalyst to tell law firms, 'You're already doing more than that.'"

The interaction between pro bono and social impact is complicated, said Glazer, of the Pro Bono Institute. But social impact is an emerging area, she said, as lawyers seek more ways to use their profession as a vehicle for positive change.

Having a C-suite role to organize those efforts is absolutely necessary, Curran said.

"There's no question in my mind that firms have to prioritize this at the top level," he said. "There are firms that say they want to do this and don't action it. They have to understand that this is not our grandfather's pro bono."

You can read that article by clicking this link. 

The "Good" Pivot: From Pro Bono to Social Impact Law

^That's the original title of the piece I wrote for The American Lawyer Magazine's July 2017 issue.  Their team changed the title to "Must Law Firms' Good Deeds Be Done for Free?" Insofar as that question invites curiosity, I am cool with it.

The article is what matters most. And I wrote it following a friendly and constructive Twitter exchange about AmLaw rankings of law firms which a super nice person named Gina joined. In the midst of the exchange, I clicked Gina's profile to discover she is the CEO of The American Lawyer Magazine (which oversees the AmLaw rankings).  For someone who doesn't spend a ton of time on Twitter, it was a solid stroke of luck.

Gina and I had a call. She was completely open to a new perspective and invited me to write an article.  You can read that article by clicking this link. Alternatively, I'm including the full text below for anyone who gets bounced to a sign-in screen they aren't motivated to conquer. 

Must Law Firms' Good Deeds Be Done for Free?

Scott Curran, The American Lawyer

A new model of how law firms do good is emerging, one that delights clients and talent, is profitable, and captures the work that many firms are already doing. This new model—serving social impact clients and achieving social impact through direct firm undertakings—embraces the role of lawyers as the architects of social innovation. At scale, it creates new practices within firms and throughout the profession to serve a growing market of social impact clients and expands the model of how firms "do good."

Pro Bono Important but Limiting

When describing how firms do good, most attorneys understandably cite pro bono practices. Pro bono (providing legal services without charge) has always been the primary way law firms and attorneys serve those with the most urgent unmet legal needs.

But pro bono alone is no longer a sufficient framework, nor metric, to capture the increasingly diverse ways in which firms are evolving to achieve greater social impact. The rest of the private sector has grown beyond traditional corporate social responsibility (using profits to do good) into more integrated social impact approaches that merge the business model with social purpose.

Similarly, law firms are evolving beyond pro bono alone in how they serve social impact clients. The new social impact model for law firms has two primary components: 1) social impact client services; and 2) direct firm undertakings for social good.

Social Impact Client Services

A large market of social impact clients has emerged and, with it, an increasing demand for sophisticated legal support. While inclusive of nonprofits and other traditional pro bono clients, the social impact market consists of increasingly larger, more diverse and better-funded paying clients.

Sophisticated global nonprofits, family offices, social financiers, impact investors, social enterprises and entrepreneurs all comprise the emerging social impact client portfolio. And they are all using lawyers.

Toms Shoes, Warby Parker and Thrive Market are just a few of the growing number of high-profile businesses with an integrated social purpose.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an LLC and not a charity, works to solve social problems through a combination of approaches including making investments in profit-seeking endeavors.

Impact investors and social financiers deploy capital that seeks market rate returns in socially responsible investments.

The world's largest foundations and operating charities with large budgets that fund programs increasingly require sophisticated professional support.

Behind all their work are lawyers. Law firms are happy and excited to have these clients in their book of business. And lawyers throughout their firms' practice groups who service the diverse needs of these clients are excited to do the work. Serving these paying clients grows opportunities for law firms to achieve the double bottom line of doing good while doing well. But law firm social impact doesn't stop at client services alone.

Law Firms as Social Actors

Beyond the growing market of social impact clients, firms are evolving in how they use their own time, talent and treasure to achieve social impact.

Some firms have large foundations that make grants. Other firms have operating charities that deploy lawyers to support programs working on rule of law and access to justice in developing countries. Some firms undertake community service initiatives involving all firm staff (not just attorneys). The list goes on.

This all makes sense. Doing good is inherent in the profession and motivates many of us personally. And, as our increasingly interdependent and connected world exposes us to global challenges, as growing ranks of millennials seek meaning in their work, and as lawyers discover new ways to deploy their talents to solve challenges, lawyer-led social impact efforts will increase.

New Framework, Measuring What Matters

While this exciting work grows within firms, no universal framework yet exists to meaningfully recognize, organize, market and measure it. Pro bono rankings only capture free attorney time. They don't account for paying social impact clients or for the direct social impact undertakings of firms. This will change with a new social impact metric currently in development by my consulting practice, Beyond Advisers.

Leading firms should be recognized for the work they are already doing. Other firms will welcome the road map that a social impact metric provides to track and measure their existing work. Most importantly, by using a more inclusive social impact metric, we will foster an atmosphere more conducive to greater innovation, collaboration, and even competition in serving social impact clients.

New Markets, Approaches and Opportunities

As social impact work increasingly blurs lines between sectors and blends profits and purpose, new legal entities, financing tools and uniquely sophisticated deal work are emerging. The challenges of this pioneering work require creativity, innovation and extra time from the lawyers who support these endeavors. But the generally high hourly rates of the most in-demand attorneys become a unique challenge. Premium rates assume efficiency and expertise. However, the innovative landscape does not yet know the same efficiencies, and existing expertise must be reconfigured for this new market. And pro bono requests become harder to make or approve for seemingly well-resourced and/or profit-generating endeavors.

There is a fertile middle ground between pro bono and premium rates. Current examples include discounted rates, flat fee pricing, capped fees, alternative billing arrangements, payment tied to success metrics, fixed cost retainers, and per-deal pricing. Firms of all sizes have an opportunity to develop new models to serve social impact clients.

Big clients with big budgets will continue to look to Big Law, which has tremendous ability to innovatively meet social impact demand. But premium rates (even at a discount) and industry rankings prioritizing revenue and profits (and tracking only pro bono efforts) remain a challenge.

Startup clients with smaller budgets can find boutique firms catering to the social impact market. While fast, nimble and affordable, these firms are challenged to scale with their most successful clients whose eventual full-service needs require a hand off to other firms that can pick up where they max out.

Middle market firms have a "Goldilocks" opportunity. Not too big or expensive, not too small or unscalable, but just right with reasonable rates, sophisticated full-service practices, and the ability to speak and practice social impact.

There are clients and opportunities for every sized firm. And the clients and talent of these firms will increasingly prioritize firms that speak and practice social impact. With a framework and metric that more inclusively recognizes and measures social impact, attorneys and their firms will have a greater opportunity to scale their social impact work.

The Bright Future of Social Impact Law

During my 10 years as counsel to a global operating charity with thousands of staff working in more than 30 countries on more than a dozen initiatives, and in my experience advising dozens of organizations doing similar work globally, I have seen firsthand the enthusiasm of outside attorneys to engage in new, dynamic, cross-sector social impact work. Just a few examples of the services that lawyers and law firms that speak and practice social impact provide include:

• Knowing when, where,and how to register and build and manage teams in countries where "on the ground" work occurs.
   

• Engaging smart business lawyers to structure multiparty, cross-sector partnerships supporting dynamic global programs.
   

• Working with corporate, finance and tax counsel to properly structure program- and mission-related investments.
   

• Creating innovative new financing structures and mechanisms to develop social investment policies and streamline deal work for impact investors.
   

• Using real estate lawyers to develop land leases in developing nations where commercial farming and supply chain operations help smallholder farmers increase their productivity and access to global markets.

As an adjunct professor teaching social impact law, and as founder of a social impact consulting practice, I have developed an even fuller view of the opportunity ahead for the law to achieve greater social impact at scale.

I see a bright future where:

• Law schools teach social impact in classrooms and practice it in clinics for the benefit of community social impact organizations and practice-ready graduates alike;
   

• Law firms recruit eager and motivated talent with a zeal for serving the double bottom line of doing good while doing well; and
   

• Industry rankings measure social impact inclusive of, but not limited to, pro bono alone to capture how the profession comprehensively achieves its highest and best purpose.

Lawyers are the architects of social innovation. We are already behind so much social impact work. Imagine how the future looks when we put lawyers in front of it!

Scott Curran is the founder of Beyond Advisers, a social impact consulting practice that simplifies professional services for the social sector (www.beyondadvisers.com). He previously served as General Counsel of the Clinton Foundation. He teaches, lectures and speaks with considerable enthusiasm on the topic of lawyers as social innovators. Twitter: @scottmcurran

Lawyers as Social Innovators - Janders Dean Legal Horizons Conference

Lawyers are the architects of social innovation. Moving beyond pro bono alone to a more inclusive (and profitable) social impact approach will help the legal profession achieve its highest and best purpose. 
The profession need only recognize, organize, market, and measure the work already under way (which is exactly what we help innovative law firms do)!
This is the focus of my Janders Dean talk from the Legal Horizons Conference in 2016, newly posted online for your viewing pleasure! It was also the focus of this blog post that I wrote after giving the talk below last year.