Mission Statement

Statement of Principles

In order to develop as an institution that commands the loyalty of both its clients and its professional and non-professional staff, Ball Janik LLP strives to satisfy both internal and external goals.

Internal Goals: Ball Janik LLP’s raison d’être is to provide opportunities for its professionals to engage cooperatively in a challenging, stimulating, and financially rewarding practice in a working environment that is hospitable and personally engaging for both professionals and non-professionals and is imbued with a sense of common enterprise.

External Goals: Ball Janik LLP’s practice should retain the following characteristics: (1) it focuses on finding and implementing the most effective and efficient solutions for clients’ problems, rather than maximizing fees; (2) it is lean and aggressive, but humane, and always is distinguished by high ethical standards and professional courtesy; and (3) it is selective in its pursuit of clients.

Implementation

A.  To ensure that Ball Janik LLP’s practice is challenging and stimulating, we should:

    1.  Maintain high standards in hiring.

    2.  Encourage individuals to complement their technical skills by developing strategic, client-oriented, thinking and broad vision.

    3.  Encourage individuals both to support and to challenge each other.

    4.  Encourage and support entrepreneurship.

B.  To ensure that Ball Janik LLP's professionals practice cooperatively and with a sense of common enterprise, we should:

    1.  Communicate among ourselves so that all professionals know something about each other's experience, skills, current practice, and professional goals.

    2.  Reach out to other professionals in the firm, getting others involved in our projects and getting involved in theirs, even when it is not possible to bill all hours of involvement.

    3.  Increase the contact each practice group member has with other practice groups.

C.  To maintain a hospitable and personally engaging working environment, we should:

    1.  Maintain high standards of courtesy among all personnel.

    2.  Keep information flowing at all levels.

    3.  Provide continuous and constructive feedback at all levels.

    4.  Not permit individuals to work so independently that they become isolated.

    5.  Encourage expressions of humor.

    6.  Explain the firm's guiding principles to everyone in the firm, including non-professionals.

    7.  Encourage everyone in the firm, including non-professionals, to participate constructively in the community we live in, and provide appropriate recognition of that involvement.

    8.  Recognize that work is only one facet of each person's life, that personal interests and commitments outside the firm are necessary and desirable, and that when the demands of work consistently interfere with those commitments, the individual's long-term effectiveness and loyalty to the firm may be undermined.

D.  To encourage individuals to emphasize client-focused problem solving and professionalism in their day-to-day work, we should:

    1.  Focus a significant portion of feedback and rewards on creativity, problem solving, efficiency, responsiveness, professionalism, and other attributes that build client loyalty and promote the firm's image.

    2.  Explain the firm's guiding principles (as articulated herein) to all incoming professionals, and reiterate the principles on appropriate occasions.

E.  In pursuing clients selectively, we should:

    1.  Evaluate the impact that prospective representations may have on the firm’s culture or reputation.

    2.  Avoid representing clients that expect us to advocate in a manner that is inconsistent with our professional standards.