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Partner Derin Dickerson describes the firm's history and commitment to community service.
Community Engagement
Alston & Bird is committed to supporting and encouraging our employees’ many contributions to charitable organizations.
Our policy supports and encourages community volunteerism by providing 15 hours of paid time off for full-time employees and 7.5 hours for part-time employees annually. Alston & Bird offers many company-sponsored volunteer opportunities and encourages employees to volunteer with nonprofits focused on their own philanthropic areas of interest.
To better support our employees and the impact of their charitable giving and community service, Alston & Bird established the A+BOVE Program – A+B Opportunities for Volunteers to Engage. This Dollars for Doers program provides grants to nonprofit organizations on behalf of employees who volunteer their time doing good works in the community. This program gives employees the ability to focus on volunteer work that is of greatest importance to them in the community.
Alston & Bird strongly encourages community leadership. Our attorneys and staff serve on the boards of more than 400 nonprofit organizations in the communities where we do business, and 37 nonprofit organizations gained new leadership in the past year.
The community service activities of Alston & Bird employees help provide assistance to those with the greatest needs. A+B Team Community makes it easy for our employees to get involved by maintaining a monthly calendar of events that provide a wide variety of volunteering opportunities, such as visits to the food bank, driving cancer patients to treatments, participating in neighborhood cleanups, building Habitat houses, participating in holiday giving tree programs, packing snacks in a backpack, and helping keep kids in school.
Below is a sampling of some of the many community service organizations and projects our attorneys and staff are involved in.
Walks/Races for Charity: Wellness and sustainability are important to our volunteers, and for this reason the Pro Bono Committee maintains an annual walk/race calendar that supports a variety of charitable causes. The firm generously covers the race fees for employees and has built into its program sustainable best practices to encourage good health for our employees and our planet.
Honoring Veterans and Troops: Remembering our veterans and supporting our troops is a year-round effort at Alston & Bird. Whether through pro bono work to a national organization that works with families of fallen soldiers or other specific projects, our staff and attorneys have pulled together for a number of projects. Attorney Angie Burnette wanted to establish an organized group of volunteers with the purpose of honoring our military and veterans throughout the year—the “A+B Brigade.” Since that time, annual projects by the brigade have included Valentines for Veterans, sending food items to USO centers, honoring Alston & Bird veterans on Veterans Day, mailing care packages to the troops and establishing a scholarship in memory of Mike Weston, son of Alston & Bird retired partner Steve Weston, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
Reading to At-Risk Children: Since 2004, Alston & Bird volunteers have been reading and mentoring elementary school students with the Everybody Wins! Power Lunch reading program. We are regular contestants in Everybody Wins! DC’s Lawyers for Literacy Trivia Challenge, winning in 2013.
Our policy supports and encourages community volunteerism by providing 15 hours of paid time off for full-time employees and 7.5 hours for part-time employees annually. Alston & Bird offers many company-sponsored volunteer opportunities and encourages employees to volunteer with nonprofits focused on their own philanthropic areas of interest.
To better support our employees and the impact of their charitable giving and community service, Alston & Bird established the A+BOVE Program – A+B Opportunities for Volunteers to Engage. This Dollars for Doers program provides grants to nonprofit organizations on behalf of employees who volunteer their time doing good works in the community. This program gives employees the ability to focus on volunteer work that is of greatest importance to them in the community.
Alston & Bird strongly encourages community leadership. Our attorneys and staff serve on the boards of more than 400 nonprofit organizations in the communities where we do business, and 37 nonprofit organizations gained new leadership in the past year.
The community service activities of Alston & Bird employees help provide assistance to those with the greatest needs. A+B Team Community makes it easy for our employees to get involved by maintaining a monthly calendar of events that provide a wide variety of volunteering opportunities, such as visits to the food bank, driving cancer patients to treatments, participating in neighborhood cleanups, building Habitat houses, participating in holiday giving tree programs, packing snacks in a backpack, and helping keep kids in school.
Below is a sampling of some of the many community service organizations and projects our attorneys and staff are involved in.
Walks/Races for Charity: Wellness and sustainability are important to our volunteers, and for this reason the Pro Bono Committee maintains an annual walk/race calendar that supports a variety of charitable causes. The firm generously covers the race fees for employees and has built into its program sustainable best practices to encourage good health for our employees and our planet.
Honoring Veterans and Troops: Remembering our veterans and supporting our troops is a year-round effort at Alston & Bird. Whether through pro bono work to a national organization that works with families of fallen soldiers or other specific projects, our staff and attorneys have pulled together for a number of projects. Attorney Angie Burnette wanted to establish an organized group of volunteers with the purpose of honoring our military and veterans throughout the year—the “A+B Brigade.” Since that time, annual projects by the brigade have included Valentines for Veterans, sending food items to USO centers, honoring Alston & Bird veterans on Veterans Day, mailing care packages to the troops and establishing a scholarship in memory of Mike Weston, son of Alston & Bird retired partner Steve Weston, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
Reading to At-Risk Children: Since 2004, Alston & Bird volunteers have been reading and mentoring elementary school students with the Everybody Wins! Power Lunch reading program. We are regular contestants in Everybody Wins! DC’s Lawyers for Literacy Trivia Challenge, winning in 2013.
Highlights
Alston & Bird Partners with Oliver Scholars to Host Mock Interview Training Program
Alston & Bird partnered with Oliver Scholars to host a mock interview training program for students on April 10. At this event, Alston & Bird attorneys helped students practice their interviewing skills to use when applying for, and interviewing with, independent high school and college institutions.
Two Alston & Bird Partners Join The Carter Center’s Board of Councilors
The Carter Center, a not-for-profit organization advancing peace and health worldwide, has appointed two Alston & Bird partners to its Board of Councilors. Tony Balloon and Jason Goode have joined the key leadership advisory group that promotes the work and mission of The Carter Center and its activities in Atlanta, throughout Georgia, and more broadly.
Darcy McLean Receives Emerging Leader Award from AALS Section on Pro Bono & Access to Justice
Alston & Bird’s Darcy McLean, senior pro bono & community engagement manager, has received the Emerging Leader Award from the Association of American Law Schools Section on Pro Bono & Access to Justice. This award honors early-to-mid-career staff or faculty who have made an outstanding contribution to pro bono and public service in the law school setting.