Known by employees as the "happy firm," Alston & Bird, LLP breaks free from the mold of their industry. It starts on employees' first day: lawyers and staff come together to welcome all new employees through the firm's regular "Newcomers Coffee," celebrated with games and door prizes. After that, employees enjoy a seemingly endless assortment of celebrations, from special breakfasts with the Managing Partner to thank staff for their support and provide gifts, to annual firm picnics with invitations extended to all employees' family members. At the well-loved Bunny Brunch, lawyers, staff and families enjoy brunch and an Easter Egg Hunt. There's a holiday craft bazaar, ice cream socials, Halloween costume contests, music, food and prizes at the annual Spring Break party, and each week you can find lawyers and staff mingling during a casual get-together at the Friday Bar. Employees who stay with Alston & Bird 20 or more years (and more than 50 people have) are invited to quarterly 21 Club luncheons to recognize their loyalty and dedication to the firm. Seven different retreats give employees the opportunity both for professional development, and to forge better friendships and relationships with their coworkers.

Recently the firm implemented a program that allows employees to donate accrued vacation and personal time to other employees. The Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program is designed to help employees who face a devastating illness of a family member, have exhausted all available paid leave of their own, and will face financial hardship because they have to take significant time off without pay. The first time someone needed to ask for donations, 87 coworkers donate more than 7 months of their own vacation.

The incredible sense of camaraderie at Alston & Bird is an important way the firm supports its long-standing cultural value of making decisions through consensus among its partners. The teamwork and mutual respect that employees develop through their numerous opportunities for informal interaction all serve to support the challenge of creating a consensus even on difficult issues.

The firm has a history of success in this form of decision making that spans more than a century. This is an example of the intangible culture that binds Alston & Bird together as a firm, and that together they feel differentiates them from the relationship that can exist at other law firms or traditionally hierarchical workplaces.