by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
In becoming the first Jacksonville law firm to match its attorneys’ contributions to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Rogers Towers has already distinguished itself as the winner of this year’s Equal Justice Award. But JALA hopes the firm will also become known as a trendsetter.
Rogers Towers took the unprecedented step of matching contributions to JALA’s private fundraising campaign shortly after an August visit from JALA Executive Director Michael Figgins and Development Director Christa Figgins. The matching offer has sparked increased participation from the firm’s 90-plus attorneys and gives JALA needed financial support as it faces City and state funding cutbacks.
“It was just two weeks after we talked to them that we get a phone call from (Rogers Towers partner) Doug Ward saying they wanted to increase their participation, and on top of that, wanted to have the firm match their attorneys’ contributions,” said Christa Figgins. “It just blew me away that they would offer that of their own volition. It gives me goosebumps now just talking about it.”
Rogers Towers attorney Chris Hazelip said the matching campaign was designed to increase the firm’s contribution while keeping individual attorneys involved.
“If the firm just wrote a check, there would be no sense of ownership for the attorneys,” said Hazelip. “This is a way to incentivize people, to light a fire under them if they’re not making contributions. But at the same time we’re not writing the check for them.”
JALA hopes Rogers Towers’ support will help jumpstart a private fundraising campaign undertaken to help boost firm contributions in the Fourth Judicial District to the levels recommended by the Florida Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court recommends each attorney licensed by the Florida Bar contribute $350 and pro bono hours to organizations like JALA dedicated to providing legal services to the poor.
A JALA review of its contributions database showed that the Fourth District, which comprises Nassau, Duval and Clay counties, lags behind some other notable legal markets.
Currently, JALA receives consistent contributions from 167 attorneys out of about 3,300 in the Fourth District. That’s a 5 percent donation rate. Compare that to Tampa where one out of five attorneys (20 percent) contribute.
Figgins attributes the relatively low participation to a lack of awareness in the Fourth District. JALA’s private campaign is only six years old, while similar campaigns in Boston, Philadelphia and Atlanta, which receive far greater levels of participation, have been around for decades.
But Rogers Towers is not alone in its local support. JALA’s database shows three firms with 100 percent employee participation: Spohrer, Wilner, Maxwell and Matthews; Hedrick, Denberry, Regan and Durant; and Terrell, Hogan.
JALA projects Rogers Towers could reach 90 percent participation from its attorneys. Hazelip said he wasn’t sure what the final number would be, but he expects a big boost over the firm’s prior rate, which hovered around the Fourth District average.
Figgins hopes Rogers Towers will inspire other firms to take similar steps to boost their support of JALA.
“I don’t know if they fully appreciate the value of the example they’ve set,” she said. “Rogers Towers is a local firm, one of the biggest names in Jacksonville’s legal community and they have a hundred year history here. They’ve sent a wonderful message to the legal community.”
With tight budget years ahead at both the state and local levels, JALA expects to have to lean more heavily on private donations. Just this year, JALA has had its budget trimmed by about $1 million to its current $3.3 million level.
JALA lost $180,000 in state funding, about $500,000 from a shortfall in criminal court fees and a $250,000 predatory lending grant from the City.
A group headed up by attorneys Robert Spohrer, Joe Milton, Buddy Schulz and Rutledge Liles are broadening JALA’s fundraising outreach to Jacksonville’s corporate community to help make up the shortfall. The mayor’s office has also pledged to help JALA with its corporate connections.