Boston law firm forgoes gifts to clients, donates $10,000
When Liz Ounanian and the lawyers at Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford LLP, a Boston law firm, were deciding this year how to recognize their clients during the Christmas holiday season, they opted to take a different approach than they had in previous years.
"It just didn't seem right to send gifts to clients when the economy was so bad," said Ounanian, the firm's administrator, who usually supervises the purchase of fruit baskets, candies, and cookies for clients and others who helped make the firm's year successful.
This year, instead, the management committee of the firm decided to make a donation to a charity. After some research, they chose Globe Santa and donated $10,000, the amount it would typically spend on client gifts.
"We really wanted to stay local, and we all were familiar with the tremendous void Globe Santa fills in kids' lives," said Ounanian.
For more than 50 years, Globe Santa has helped thousands of children from cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts who otherwise would not receive gifts at Christmas time. This year, amid a difficult economic environment, Globe Santa provided gifts for 54,286 children in 30,268 families. In 2007 it provided help for 29,378 families.
Fortunately for Globe Santa, it was this same economic climate that provided encouragement for many donors to do what the people at Conn Kavanaugh did.
According to Ounanian, the response from the firm's clients was extremely positive. "The general feeling was, 'We all have plenty, do we really need another gift basket?' " she said.
Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.
The firm was started by four colleagues at a larger law firm in Boston who decided to set up a practice together. Since then, it has grown from four to more than 30 lawyers and a total of 51 employees. 