Quarles & Brady has a rich history of community service, embraced by our civic-minded lawyers and staff members alike. We also frequently partner with our clients to fulfill corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) initiatives across our geographic business footprint, in order to augment their effectiveness and share our spirit of “giving back” with those whom we work closely. Some of our CSR efforts are internal — such as employee wellness, workplace diversity, and environmental sustainability programs — while others support and sustain our local communities through our Quarles Cares program and our pro bono commitments. All of them reflect our ongoing dedication to make the communities in which we work better places to live.

Diversity

We’ve built a more dynamic and effective working environment at Quarles by embracing diversity and inclusion as a core value. Diverse cultures, experiences, expertise, and perspectives afford us greater strength in understanding and addressing the needs of our clients, as well as creating a richer working environment. Greater diversity leads to increased creativity, lateral thought, and powerful problem-solving capabilities, all of which enhances internal operations and promises higher levels of client service. Many of our clients similarly value and demand diversity of their business partners, but to us it’s a cultural norm; it’s integral to how we see ourselves, each other, the clients we serve, and our future in a multicultural world.

Pro Bono

Quarles has, for many years, demonstrated an enthusiastic commitment to the provision of pro bono legal services, to a degree that has been gratefully acknowledged and honored in many of the communities in which we practice law. We appreciate that recognition, but we’re actually driven by our solemn duty to ensure that justice lies within reach of all persons, regardless of income, so we humbly provide quality legal representation to those in our communities who are least able to pay for, yet most in need of, our services. Like diversity, serving the less fortunate is ingrained in our firm culture.

Quarles Cares

Speaking of service to those in need, Quarles Cares is our firmwide initiative encompassing the most important aspects of our CSR commitment through civic and charitable initiatives. Our members find it extremely rewarding to connect with our communities through service. This involvement serves to raise awareness of our community's needs while playing a part in their ongoing development.

Quarles Cares is also a wonderful vehicle for encouraging our attorneys and staff to remain in touch with the world around them and make our communities better and brighter places to live. Our many initiatives, selected and supported at the local level, are not only a source of pride but also great team builders because they allow for opportunities to work with personnel whom we might not see in the course of our daily routines, and at the same time celebrate one another’s skills and strengths as we enjoy one another’s company.

Sustainability

The call for environmental sustainability has changed how the world does business, and the demands of sustainability will only increase in the years to come. Quarles recognizes its responsibility to the future and willingly takes proactive steps to do its part. Furthermore, given our longstanding role as a leader in the field of environmental law, it’s only natural that we would embrace sustainability and manage our offices with a consideration for conservation.

We are proud that our Chicago office is the first law office to be LEED Gold certified, and we continue to build on that distinction by pursuing environmentally conscientious practices and policies throughout our firm. From purchasing sustainable products to delineating specific steps to reduce paper, energy, and water use, we’ve made consistent progress in terms of our sustainability goals.

But we’re not done. Going forward, we’ll continue to assess our current practices and seek new protocols that will ensure we’re doing all we can to help the environment.

Employee Welfare and Wellness

Quarles established a Wellness Committee to create a firm culture that nurtures employee health, increases day-to-day workplace satisfaction, enhances productivity, and results in long-term, measurable improvement in employee wellness, along with a reduction in medical costs. We facilitate these goals through a robust internal website dedicated to employee wellness, regular educational emails, lunch & learn programs, individual and team-based health challenges, themed walks, health fairs, onsite screenings, and flu shots. We also partner with third-party organizations for disease management and employee assistance services, and we subsidize the costs associated with maintaining a health club membership as well as other healthy-living expenses such as personal trainers, weight loss programs, exercise equipment purchases, smoking cessation programs, and more.