Law Firms Choose Charities Over Holiday Parties
Law firms Foley & Lardner and GrayRobinson announced plans Tuesday to call off lavish holiday parties in order to support some of their favorite charities, theOrlando Sentinel reports.
“We got together as a partnership at our last partner’s meeting and we discussed what we wanted to do, and what we decided is the various departments in our firms would be allocated a certain amount of money that typically went to the holiday party, and they could each choose which charity they wanted to support,” said Foley managing partner, Michael Gay, Central Florida News Channel 13 notes.
At GrayRobinson, this year’s $150,000 holiday party donation will be in addition to the firm’s regular charitable commitments, the newspaper reports.
“This year, we think that needs to be done on a larger scale to ensure those in need have the resources to weather these tough times,” the firm’s founder J. Charles Gray said in a statement announcing the decision to cancel the firm’s popular client holiday party.
Last year’s event was attended by 2,000 guests, and the annual Orlando soiree has become known as a who’s who of local election officials, business leaders and power brokers, the newspaper notes.
Charities receiving donations from the law firms include the Christian Service Center for Central Florida, the Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando, the Coalition for the Homeless and the American Red Cross.
