Mission and Values

BLC's mission is to build a values-based, multidisciplinary law and dispute resolution firm that helps people resolve conflict in family, business, and employment cases.

Values:

1. Service to clients – the highest quality work
2. Spiritual and moral integrity
3. Service to the community
4. Broad, "holistic" perspective about client services and life in general
5. Commitment to multidisciplinary practice (including psychology, financial services, and workplace consulting, among others)
6. Commitment to expanding the use of dispute resolution and collaborative law
7. Flexibility about pricing services so that they can be provided to more than just the affluent
8. Openness to innovations in services and the structure of the organization
9. Fairness about compensation to members of the BLC team based on contribution
10. Flexibility about differing levels of contribution
11. Support for ancillary work (e.g., teaching and writing) by members of the BLC team
12. Support for additional education for members of the team
13. Sharing with others what we have learned from trying to create such a firm
14. Collegiality and mutual respect – creating a feeling of community within the office
15. Work-family balance
16. Consensus-based, democratic decision-making in the office
17. Making a good living
18. Fun

BLC Motto:

"Our life is more than our work and our work is more than our job." (Singer/songwriter Charlie King)

Charities and Pro Bono Work

BLC supports a number of charities, public interest groups, and 501(c)(3) organizations, including the following:

• Alzheimer's Association 
• American Civil Liberties Union Foundation
• American Heart Association 
• American Red Cross (Katrina Relief)
• Association for Conflict Resolution
• Bette Winik Scholarship Fund (Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council) 
• Community Dispute Settlement Center 
• Cradles to Crayons 
• Greater Boston Food Bank
• Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative  
• Humane Society of the United States (Katrina Relief)
• International Academy of Collaborative Professionals 
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services 
• Muscular Dystrophy Association
• National Association for Community Mediation 
• National Lawyers Guild
• New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution 
• No Place for Hate
• Project Bread - The Walk for Hunger
• Rosie's Place 
• Sarah Lynn Hughes Memorial Scholarship Fund
• Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
• Union of Reform Judaism (Katrina Relief)

BLC provides pro bono mediation services for the Community Dispute Settlement Center ("CDSC") and several court-connected mediation programs, and provides pro bono training services for CDSC, the Women's Bar Foundation Family Law Project for Battered Women, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, and a number of national and local dispute resolution organizations and bar associations.  BLC attorney Vicki Shemin also serves as Lawyer for the Day at the Middlesex County Probate and Family Court.