Charthouse Values
Leading with empathy.
Let’s start with what empathy does not mean: sympathy. Sympathy is feeling sorrow or pity for others. Empathy is the act of putting yourself in the other person’s shoes to better understand them and what they are facing.
We’re not your therapist – we’re your law firm. Leading with empathy means we strive to demonstrate to others that we understand or seek to understand what they are experiencing, through our words and actions, so we can properly fix or accommodate the situation. It applies to our interactions with everyone, whether they be clients, co-workers, people we work with from other organizations, or whole communities of people.
Cultivating empathy helps us see issues from the vantage point of our clients, removing our own biases and acting for our clients from a place of mutual understanding. In this way we can determine whether the problem is something you can personally solve, or whether assistance is required.
A desire to be better.
Wanting to be better means commitment, through our words and actions, to continuous improvement within work product and productivity. We also have a growth mindset. Perfection is unattainable, but that does not mean we should not try to grow and be better.
We believe teams work more effectively when everyone believes their goals can be met by growing together, rather than everything being zero-sum.
Law should be comfortable.
At Charthouse Lawyers, our company culture is one of inclusivity and accessibility. We are not stuffy; we want our clients to feel comfortable around us, and we make it a conscious priority to create a comfortable environment for everyone.
Lift our communities.
As client-centered legal professionals, we care about our community and build it up however we can. We are committed to public service through our time, through money, through our support for marginalized people, or through other methods that seek to make the group better overall, rather than doing work one person at a time.
No heroes or lone wolves.
At Charthouse Lawyers, we are team players to the core.
This applies to our staff and our clients. We want to have meaningful, trusted relationships with our clients so we can proactively assist you before any legal problems come along. Lone wolves want nobody to bother them and heroes take on all the problems of the problems and won’t let others help. That’s not the kind of law we want to practice.
Collective ownership and responsibility for our actions.
At Charthouse Lawyers, each member of our team is actively engaged in treating the firm as though we are all owners. This involves taking initiative to improve the business, educating ourselves on different approaches, lifting up our colleagues, and recognizing that our success relies on multiple people and creating small dedicated teams to tackle individual problems.
Ownership differs from management. Ownership is about caring about the firm and having a stake in its overall success, whereas management is about coaching and control. We don’t want our culture to be one of too many cooks in the kitchen, rather, we see our ethos as one that values shared success and shared responsibility.
Candid communication.
Honesty is more than the absence of lying; we all have an obligation to speak up, even if it is uncomfortable.
It also obligates us to be honest about the problems we are facing in your file (no heroes or lone wolves) so they can be fixed. Living our firm values requires us to note when we and others are falling below the mark so issues do not fester. This means practicing proactive communication.
