“Spring Legal Run 2021” Charity Race

PROBLEM SITUATION (description of the situation, why it arose; how this situation could affect the company’s activities)

The phenomenon of professional burnout is quite typical for the legal environment. Representatives of the legal profession significantly affect the viability of society and the state. Such responsibility requires representatives of this profession an exceptional sense of duty.

No matter how hard a lawyer tries to avoid a “professional situation” that causes stress by wearing a “cold consultant” neutrality mask, no matter how hard he tries to avoid the “trap” of his own emotions and feelings, issuing ready-made solutions, acting in familiar, proven ways and “tools,” he as a person endowed with a subconscious, and so he experiences states and processes that lead to emotional (professional) burnout.

Internal conflicts related to ethical differences in the performance of their primary duties are often left behind and experienced in confidence, affecting the personal qualities, psychological state, and, consequently, the lawyer’s health.

Therefore, the challenge here is the potential and present problems with the mental and physical health of the staff and management of our company, related to burnout and daily stress at work.

How it could affect the company’s activities? 

Mental health issues cause both direct and indirect economic damage. The direct ones include the costs of medical care, payment of temporary disability certificates. The indirect damages cover absences of work, formal presence at the workplace, reduced efficiency, the unhealthy psychological climate in the team, frequent staff rotation.

SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM SITUATION (what decision was made; chronology of the decision implementation process; description of the decision; what technologies were used; quote from the top manager, why they chose this decision; whether there were any organizational/technical difficulties in resolving the situation; how these difficulties were overcome, what expenses, time and other resources were spent to implement the decision)

For the second time, the company organized the Legal Run Charity Race to unite lawyers, remind them how important it is to take care of their health, play sports, relax, and not forget about informal communication with colleagues. And raise funds to help those in need.

Two partners of Legal House Denys Ovcharov and Olexander Gorobets have been practicing running and triathlon for a long time. They are marathoners and ironmen and have experienced this activity’s therapeutic effect and broad opportunities to form an influential community around such a healthy hobby. So, the choice of running as an activity to help overcome burnout and its impact on our colleagues’ mental and physical health was quite evident to our company. In addition, both “frontmen” are highly reputed persons both within our company and in the Ukrainian legal market, which allowed us to attract the maximum number of lawyers.

Chronology of the process

1. The first point to be decided was the charitable purpose of the race. After all, the maximum involvement of the company’s employees and the legal community is possible only under the condition of a transparent and essential charitable purpose.

We chose two directions:

Children with cerebral palsy from the “Hand in Hand” running club did not have the opportunity to train, participate in races with their parents and volunteers because they did not have special running carts. Therefore, the first charitable purpose of the race was to raise funds for the purchase of such carts. The cost of one trolley with delivery to Ukraine is about UAH 80,000.

The Kyiv Department of Mobile Palliative Care did not have a monitor to control the vital signs of seriously ill children and perform operations on the children under anesthesia. The cost of the monitor is UAH 180,000. Therefore, the second charitable purpose of the race was to raise funds for the purchase of a particular anesthesia monitor.

2. Next, the date, location, and technical contractors were picked, a website was created for the registration and raising of charitable contributions, the presentation was made to attract partners and corporate teams, and Facebook page was created to inform the participants about the race. We found our participants due to the press releases, e-mails, targeted advertising, personal contacts of partners and employees of the company.

The quote of the top manager

Ruslan Redka, Managing Partner of Legal House: “The idea of involving our company’s lawyers, lawyers of other law firms, in-house companies, and other representatives of the legal profession into the charity race seemed quite logical and organic. It is a charity that motivates you to prepare for and participate in the race. Running is a sport accessible to almost everyone, and bringing together legal market participants and informal communication is another result of implementing our idea. In addition, our race had children’s starts and the opportunity to participate online. This opened an opportunity for whole families and from all over the world to participate in the race. “

Main difficulties

The main difficulties during the organization of Spring Legal Run 2021 were compliance with all quarantine requirements and obtaining permission from local authorities for its performance. When Kyiv authorities announced a lockdown in April 2021, the date of the race was postponed to May, but at the end of the day, everything worked out, and the race has shown even better results than expected.

Expenses

It took about 5 months to organize the race, starting from the moment an idea was born to its implementation, UAH 80,000 was spent. Legal House team was composed of 7 people, plus the involvement of technical contractors.

RESULTS OF THE DECISION MADE (what were the results and impacts of the decision; how the decision affected the company (reputation, financial performance, recognition, trust); what would have happened if this decision was not made; what lessons have been learned).

All Legal House employees took part in the organization and the race itself. This contributed to regular team members’ regular training and informal communication with each other and between their families. Even now, most of the employees who have run their charity distance continue to train regularly and participate in different races (in particular, our corporate team). The team strengthened and gained common experience and memorable moments.

The race brought together 400 offline participants and 14 corporate teams – the largest number of lawyers from all over Ukraine since independence. 

At the expense of contributions of participants and partners, it was possible to collect 400 thousand hryvnias.

We transferred all registration fees for the purchase of medical equipment for seriously ill children – patients of the Department of Mobile Palliative Care for Children of Kyiv, and unique running strollers for the “Hand in Hand” running club for children with cerebral palsy, where children can train, participate in races with parents and volunteers. 

The race had a positive impact on the reputation and recognition of Legal House in the legal market and in the business environment, increased the value of the Legal House HR brand.