December 10, 2024
At B Local, our focus is amplification, collaboration, and supporting fellow B Corps with a mandate to do good as we do well.
WRD Law is the next in our Spotlight series with a goal to promote B Local member businesses, as well as bolster greater community through shared learning and experiences.
Is there a B Corp or B Corp leader that you look up to? Explain.
We became a B Corp on August 1, 2024. We are the first law firm in the City of Toronto to attain B Corp status and are happy to join the community.
We have been based at the Toronto Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) since 2018, where we have met a multitude of wonderful social enterprises. One of those organizations is Grantbook Inc., who have been a B Corp since 2013. Grantbook similarly used CSI as a launchpad for its business, shepherding growth while remaining focused on increasing social impact through working with their clients.
We are excited by the opportunity to meet more B Corps and look forward to collaborating with as many as possible.
What does being a B Corp mean to you? To your team? To your customers?
When we founded WRD LLP, we knew we wanted to be a B Corp. We built our firm’s foundation on the values of Ethical Governance, Sustainable Operations, Impactful Legal Work and Community Engagement.
We saw that this foundation would set us on the path to certification. And it did! Being a B Corp is so meaningful to us because:
- In the beginning, we set a strategic direction for ourselves orienting towards B Corp certification. We wanted to be more intentional about integrating a positive social impact into how we operate. Our certification is a culmination of that effort.
- The B Impact Assessment provides us with a road map of how and where we can step up that social impact in the future.
We believe that there are many lawyers in Canada who embrace these values, and we hope that our B Corp status will prompt them to seek us out. We do not yet know how clients may view a B Corp-certified legal practice, but we are eager to learn what this means to them.
Can you share a specific example of how your company values have shaped your business practices or decision-making process?
Our values force us to rethink traditional law firm practices. Our lawyers are all trained in environments that were competitive, hyper-individualistic, and extremely conservative. When we designed WRD LLP, we wanted to push back against those norms. That meant:
- Orienting our practice around trust, collaboration, and professional growth.
- Rethinking traditional law firm practices to both emphasize environmental stewardship, and nurture a supportive workplace for all team members built on co-creation.
- Inviting every team member to actively participate in discussions around business development, problem solving, and policy creation. Also, doing our best to integrate input and feedback from everyone regardless of seniority or experience.
- Engaging in deep learning about our client’s businesses. This way we can build a catered and sustainable legal infrastructure for our clients rather than forcing them to conform to outdated legal practices.
