The Culture

Our firm is a collection of independent, diverse personalities who share a common devotion to first-class legal work.

We value individuality. We encourage our lawyers to be themselves. Our working environment is spirited, open, welcoming, and fast-paced. All attorneys, regardless of experience level, are encouraged to participate fully in the work of the firm and to express their views on client issues and firm matters.

Our positive work environment is highly respected and recognized outside the firm. Arnold & Porter has been ranked consistently on many of the top lists for businesses and law firms. These honors include but are not limited to: FORTUNE magazine’s list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For:, Working Mother magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers", Yale Law Women's Top Ten Family Friendly Firm list and The American Lawyer's "A-List". Additionally, the firm continues to receive top ratings by the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. Read more about the firm's recognitions and awards.

Finding Balance

We strive to offer our attorneys and all of our employees a flexible and comfortable work environment so that they may balance the demands of their careers with their personal interests and obligations. Examples of ways we promote a positive and comfortable working environment for everyone:

• Childcare: To help parents balance work and family, we have a National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accredited Children's Center in our Washington, DC office for up to 62 children. We have emergency back-up care in all of our domestic offices. Employees are eligible for up to 15 days of care. Priority access is also available in all our domestic offices at select centers.
• Part-Time: Approximately 10 percent of our attorneys and staff work on a reduced-hours arrangement. Our part-time policy allows attorneys and staff who work at least 20 hours per week to qualify for health and welfare benefits. This schedule is provided as an option to help our employees balance their work and home lives, while still maintaining benefits. We have three Part-Time Advisors to associates. We have part-time advisors for lawyers who are considering or are currently working part-time.
• Parental Leave: Our paid parental leave policy includes 18 weeks paid leave for the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child for the primary caregiver, and 8 weeks paid parental leave for the secondary caregiver. Primary caregivers can extend their leave for up to 24 weeks of job-guaranteed leave and Associates may use unpaid leave to extend their time away from the firm for up to one year.
  
  The firm's gender-neutral parental leave policy recognizes the importance of having a parent at home during the first few months following a child's birth, adoption or placement. The policy provides access to primary caregiver leave to either parent provided they are the sole caregiver at home during work hours. Subject to the terms of the policy, if the parent not employed by the firm initially serves as the primary caregiver and returns to work earlier than 18 weeks after the birth, adoption or placement, the parent employed by Arnold & Porter becomes eligible to designate himself/herself as the primary caregiver and may activate primary caregiver status for the balance of the 18-week period (provided the balance does not exceed 12 weeks).
  
  In addition, we provide a contribution toward the cost of an adoption with no lifetime maximum benefit. Our insurance coverage includes fertility treatments with a benefit up to $30,000. To assist those who need to take leave to care for a seriously ill family member, we will provide up to 6 weeks of paid primary caregiver leave.
• Domestic Partner Benefits: Domestic partners and their children are eligible for coverage under our medical, dental, vision, and dependent life insurance programs.
• Fitness Promotion: Our "Healthy Incentive Program" provides a monetary incentive for our employees to stay fit and healthy. To promote this effort, we also feature an annual Health Awareness Day. The firm also offers a variety of health and fitness benefits that are free-of-charge to all employees. For example, the Denver and Washington, DC offices have access to on-site athletic facilities and the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices hold weekly yoga classes.
• Family-Friendly Events: Throughout our organization, we host a variety of family-friendly functions including "Take Your Daughters & Sons to Work Day," summer picnics, a July 4th celebration, a Halloween parade, holiday parties, and children's art shows.
• Garden Room: All of our offices have a "Garden Room," where attorneys can gather for refreshments on a regular basis.

Valuing Diversity

Arnold & Porter welcomes people of all backgrounds to apply for positions with us. The diversity of our attorneys and our staff is important to us and to our clients, and we have been recognized for our commitment by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). The firm has been recognized with a Sager Award on nine occasions by the MCCA for its diversity efforts in the firm's New York and Washington, DC offices.

We make an effort to reach out to diverse segments of the population so that a broad spectrum of people will consider Arnold & Porter among their career options:

• We participate in career development programs and minority job fairs;
• We provide scholarships to diverse law students; and
• We reach out to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), women, and minority law student associations to inform them of our commitment to inclusion and diversity.

Building Community

One of the hallmarks of the Arnold & Porter community is compassion for community projects. To demonstrate our commitment to the local communities where we have offices, we developed a Community Service Program. Through this firmwide program, we offer volunteer activities that range from one-time projects (i.e. painting schools or building houses) to recurring opportunities (i.e., staffing food banks or tutoring.) Each office has a representative on the Community Service Committee.

These examples illustrate some of our activities firmwide:

• Community Service Events. Our Washington, DC office provided furniture and household items to displaced residents who lost their possessions when their apartment building burned down. Employees also participated in the annual Potomac River Watershed Clean up which is the largest volunteer-led clean up on the East Coast. Our London office has a charity luncheon once a month and asks employees to donate the cost of what they would normally spend on a lunch. All of the proceeds from the luncheon go to a featured charity.
• Holiday Drives. Employees in each of our offices participate in events to help make the winter holidays better for families and individuals in need. For example, in Washington, DC, employees annually contribute over 700 gifts for children at a local homeless shelter. Scores of colleagues donate clothing to Gifts for the Homeless (GFTH) to help clothe the homeless during winter. At Thanksgiving, employees contribute to purchase and deliver hams, turkeys, and canned goods to provide dinner meals for another local shelter. Employees in the Washington, DC office also donate money to provide turkey baskets for senior citizens through a local food bank. Our Denver office collects toys and money for homeless children through a local organization. Our New York and Los Angeles offices also participate in similar holiday drive programs in their respective cities.
• Military Support. Our employees collect supplies to send care packages to military personnel serving overseas and donate unused frequent flyer miles to the Hero Miles Program. We also assisted Blue Star Families, an organization that connects military families to resources, programs and special opportunities, in providing support for a luncheon caregivers of wounded warriors.
• Walks/Runs for Charity. Firm employees participate in numerous walks/runs, including Public Counsel's "Run for Justice" at the Los Angeles Marathon, the New York Corporate Challenge Walk/Run for Charity, the AIDS Walk, a Walk for the Homeless, Lawyers Have Heart Race, Brussels 20km Run for Charity and various city walks for Breast Cancer Awareness, including the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Denver. These activities support the provision of legal and social services to abused children, victims of domestic violence, the homeless, veterans, and victims of AIDS, among others.