Press Release

March 23, 2022 (San Francisco, CA) – Hanson Bridgett LLP, an AmLaw 200 law firm serving all of California and beyond, is pleased to announce that the firm has been recertified as a B Corporation by B Lab for the sixth consecutive term. The firm is proud to be a founding B Corp member as well as the first law firm to become a B Corp back in 2007. The firm has maintained its certification continuously for 15 years and is currently one of only 39 law firms on the list of nearly 5,000 companies that achieve certification.

B Corp Certification is a designation that indicates a business is meeting the highest standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must:

• Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing a risk review.
• Make a legal commitment by changing its corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in its jurisdiction.
• Exhibit transparency by allowing information about its performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on its B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.

“Our continued certification demonstrates our pledge to challenge ourselves to the rigorous and meaningful assessment required to maintain B Corp status so that we can create a positive impact on our community,” said Managing Partner Kristina Lawson. “Since our founding more than 60 years ago, we have always placed a strong value on sustainability and being a good corporate citizen. Our recertification over the years underscores this is clearly reflected in our business practices and goals.”

B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. And the process to achieve and maintain certification is rigorous and requires engaging teams and departments across the company. Taking company size and profile into account, verification involves documentation of a company’s business model and information about its operations, structure, and various work processes, as well as review of potential public complaints and possible site visits. Recertification confirms these standards continue to be met on an ongoing basis.

Samir Abdelnour, the firm's first Director of Pro Bono & Social Impact, called the firm's recertification "a clear sign of how strongly we believe that a successful business is measured by more than just the bottom line. We are taking actions that our clients and employees respect and appreciate." He continued, "Our status as a Founding B Corp provides a great opportunity to work with like-minded organizations that understand the essential role businesses play in addressing the social, economic and environmental challenges we face.”

Hanson Bridgett has been at the forefront of the business for good movement. Partner Jonathan Storper chaired the legal working group which drafted and advocated for benefit corporation legislation in California that became law on January 1, 2012. A benefit corporation is a type of legal structure for businesses that creates a solid foundation for long-term mission alignment and stakeholder value creation. It is not a certification, and it is available only in the regions which have passed benefit corporation legislation. To become a benefit corporation, a company must incorporate as one in one of the regions where it is available. Some companies are both Certified B Corporations and benefit corporations, and the benefit corporation structure fulfills the legal accountability requirement of B Corp

Certification. For more information on B Corporations and Benefit Corporations, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/movement/stakeholder-governance.