Justice in the Community
This week I was fortunate enough to attend an awards luncheon for the Washington Lawyers Committee, an organization that FTI has volunteered with for several years. The Washington Lawyers committee is a group that focuses on doing work in the civil rights and social justice space in DC, whether it be educational justice, housing justice, or criminal legal system reform. At the luncheon, several speakers recognized individuals and companies for their dedication toward fighting for civil rights and to combat inequality and discrimination within the community.
This luncheon really made me think back to the foundations of my Justice and Civil Society class during my sophomore year. In particular, I read Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, where he shares stories of the work he did to help wrongfully convicted felons find justice within America’s broken incarceration system. Having taken Justice and Civil Society, I had an understanding of the challenges that under privileged citizens face in their day to day lives whether through housing, education, or incarceration.
Listening to the speakers talk about the free pro bono work that many of the companies at the luncheon offered reminded me of the importance of the work that Stevenson does and others partake in, and furthermore was truly inspiring and speaks great measures about the company culture at those firms. This prompted me to reach out to several full-time employees at FTI and learn more about the pro bono work that our company offers. I learned that many of the consultants partake in some type of work for the community outside of the normal projects that they are staffed on. Furthermore, the company encourages employees to volunteer in the community by offering up to 2 days of paid work for doing community service.
It is often easy to get so focused in on client work and to lose sight of the importance and need for volunteering for the community. This luncheon served as a reminder and recognition of the hard work outside of the office that employees at not only at FTI, but also throughout Washington DC do to promote justice within the community.
Wow, really great to hear about the significant pro-bono work that the company and its employees engage in outside of the office. Can clearly see why you connected this back to Justice. I would encourage you, however, to read through the prompts before responding. Though this definitely speaks volumes about the nature of what the company values, you don’t really address other items that are part of the ‘organizational culture’ prompt (e.g. the way in which people interact (formally/informally), communication, whether the site’s context requires leadership’s attention to certain issues versus others, etc.). I’m glad you took the initiative to reach out to others in the organization to learn more about the ways in which the company contributes to larger community/societal issues.