Partner Spotlight: Perkins Coie

We recently worked with Perkins Coie to feature their partnership with Women’s Bean Project and the work they do for the community. The interview below is part of our Partner Spotlight series highlighting the importance the partnerships that help make the work of Women’s Bean Project possible. Perkins Coie is a sponsor for this year’s Ready, Set, Grow, our annual graduation celebration and fundraiser. Its support provides programming to women we serve. Continue scrolling to learn more about Perkins Coie! Thanks for all your support!

For those who are unfamiliar with Perkins Coie can you share a bit about what your company does? Company values? Origin story? Services provided?

Perkins Coie is a leading international law firm that is known for providing high value, strategic solutions and extraordinary client service on matters vital to our clients’ success. With more than 1,200 lawyers in offices across the United States and Asia, we provide a full array of corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including many of the world’s most innovative companies and industry leaders as well as public and not-for-profit organizations.

Serving local, national and international clients based in the Rocky Mountains and neighboring vicinity, Perkins Coie’s Denver office is home to more than 60 attorneys.

Perkins Coie supports its local community in a lot of ways. Share some of the projects and efforts you do to support local initiatives.

Perkins Coie’s commitment to community runs more than a hundred years deep. Sharing our time and talents to help those most in need, both on an individual and systemic basis, defines our firm culture. In the last few years, our Denver office has committed to supporting our local community in a number of ways including hosting computer classes for the Women’s Bean Project, participating in the Denver Children’s Home Holiday Angel Project and the Children’s Hospital Holiday Card Project.

Why is partnering with Women’s Bean Project important to Perkins Coie? Can you share how your company and its values align with Women’s Bean Project’s mission?

Diversity is a long-standing core value and also one of the firm’s strategic goals. Embracing diversity allows us to draw from varied perspectives and communities, enabling us to attract the very best talent to our ranks, and in turn provide excellent service to our clients. Perkins Coie is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion both within the firm and throughout our collective communities.

LE[A]DBETTER | In 2016, we launched our “LeadBetter” program to shine a spotlight on the challenges women entrepreneurs face and to be part of the solution by committing our expertise, networks and legal services to help startups that have women in senior leadership. We provide educational and networking opportunities to women entrepreneurs and offer those companies a set discount off our legal fees.

As a company, what are you most looking forward to in the year ahead? Do you have any exciting updates you want people to know about?

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION | Diversity is one of the defining qualities of our culture, and Perkins Coie’s mission is to ensure that everyone is empowered and equipped to have opportunities that allow them to shine. We are pleased to report, for instance, that the class of Perkins Coie partners promoted this year is more than 62% diverse and includes 11 women (more than a third of the new class) and 7 lawyers of color.

RACIAL EQUALITY | We are committed to doing our part to end racism and to help create a more just and equal society. Our actions will build on the substantial work we are already doing to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within our firm and in our society. In 2020, we pledged resources and action items to advance racial equality. New commitments include financial contributions, pro bono initiatives, a civil rights legal fellowship program, an entrepreneurship program, a supplier diversity program, and observance of Juneteenth as an annual firmwide holiday.

What’s the most important thing that you want the community to know about Perkins Coie?

Perkins Coie recognizes that our actions and decisions impact our communities, the environment, and the world. It is our practice to act as a responsible global citizen by aggressively pursuing approaches that do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

PRO BONO | In 2019, Perkins Coie attorneys donated 62,970 hours of pro bono legal service. Combined with the contributions of our legal staff, the value of our pro bono time in 2019 aggregates to around $38 million.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT | Our community service program supports and promotes activities for attorneys and staff, including charitable contributions and sponsorship of and participation in major fundraising events. Other representative projects range from painting a daycare center in a low-income neighborhood to spending the lunch hour volunteering at a local senior center. We frequently partner with clients on community service projects, both large and small.

SUSTAINABILITY | The firm continuously seeks opportunities to be active on sustainability initiatives in the communities in which we have offices. We help preserve and protect the world’s ecosystems and natural resources through education, energy conservation, waste reduction and recycling, and pollution prevention.

Where can people go to learn more about Perkins Coie and your community work?

We have extensive and successful pro bono and community service programs that support and promote community service activities for attorneys and staff. Our Community Service Committees oversees programs for our offices, teams and individuals, and promotes, supports and facilitates volunteerism throughout the firm.

Our community service program operates on several levels. At the firm level, Perkins Coie:

• Makes charitable contributions to deserving organizations;
• Encourages all personnel to contribute to the United Way through regular payroll deductions; and
• Sponsors major fund-raising events, such as organized runs, and supports attorneys and staff participating in the events.

On a smaller scale, attorneys and staff, sometimes singly, sometimes in groups, are involved in many projects, ranging from painting a day-care center in a poor neighborhood to spending the lunch hour helping out at a local senior center. In addition, we’ll frequently partner with clients on community service projects, both large and small. Attorneys and staff work hand-in-hand on these projects, with each person contributing his or her talent, time and energy.

We are committed to continuing our efforts in sharing our knowledge and resources with the communities in which we live and work.