In 2016, Lawline celebrated its ten year anniversary since CEO David Schnurman re-launched the company as an online CLE provider. We wanted to commemorate this important milestone with a unique action that embraced all of Lawline’s five core values - Care, Create, Grow, Play and Act. When Rich Hernandez, Lawline’s longtime VP of Customer Experience, suggested that we donate $10,000 in honor of our ten years, we knew that this was the perfect way to honor our decade as a leader in the online CLE business.
We decided that we would pick two categories of charities. First, we wanted to recognize organizations that reflect Lawline’s core values. Under this rubric, we donated $2,500 to the Performance Project, a non-profit that offers grants to young local artists to help support strong, vibrant, and equitable local communities, and also supports artists in discovering the ways that art can heal, empower and activate individuals towards the greater good. We love this organization because it embodies the Lawline ideals of growth through education, creativity, acting with purpose, playfulness, and caring about community. Lawline’s gift was especially timely this year because in October the Performance Project was offered a matching grant to sponsor 8 young artists in a new fellowship program. Our donation helped the organization raise enough funds to reach its goal and receive the extra $15,000 grant. You can learn more about all of the amazing projects supported by the Performance Project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbiHapY_zU
Second, we also wanted to donate to organizations that are personally important to Lawline team members. When we heard that Office Ambassador Ann Joseph’s mother had lost her farm and home to the destruction of Hurricane Matthew, we knew that we needed to give to the relief efforts there. Lawline donated $2,500 to Hope for Haiti, an organization that sprung into action immediately following the storm and worked tirelessly to get needed supplies to isolated areas throughout the country.
In this same spirit of personal impact, the third donation Lawline made was $1000 to the Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Foundation. This organizational network provides patients with referrals to Centers of Excellence and available clinical trials, assists physicians in sharing new research and treatment options, and provides educational support for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and patients. The MDS Foundation has been incredibly helpful to Lawline CEO David Schnurman and VP of Business Operations Michele Richman, whose mother has MDS.
We still have $4000 remaining to donate in commemoration of Lawline’s 10 years of providing attorneys with CLE, and are very excited to explore new options. If you have any suggestions for organizations that embody Lawline’s core values, or have a personal impact on the lives of Lawliners, email Michele@lawline.com.
