To be or not to B Corp
Alex McPherson, founder of Ignition Law, provides an insight into the journey towards becoming a B Corp and tells of the rewards, as well as the hurdles, encountered along the way
Over the last decade, since I founded Ignition Law, we have evolved into a high-growth, full-service law firm advising entrepreneurs, SMEs and scale-ups. From the very outset, our success has been underpinned by the bedrock of our core values: integrity, transparency, kindness and humility.
These qualities guide and inform every aspect of how we operate the business and serve clients; they also align perfectly with the B Corp ethos, which is why we decided to embark on the journey towards accreditation. Earlier this year, we became one of around 20 law firms in the UK that are B Corp-certified.
Why go B Corp?
Quite simply, B Corp is the world’s leading quality mark when it comes to ethical business credentials. This independent accreditation provided by B Lab, a global non-profit network, certifies that a business is meeting certain verified standards of performance, accountability and transparency.
Given our firm’s clear values-driven approach, it made perfect sense for us to become a B Corp: Ignition Law’s senior leadership team shared my desire to demonstrate our ethos externally and hardcode it into our practice for our future partners and employees. It was a proud day indeed when we received the email informing us of our success — our hard work had paid off. And hard work it was!
The challenges and benefits of becoming a B Corp
We knew from the outset that the road to achieving B Corp certification would be a long and challenging one — it is a profoundly rigorous process, and rightly so. Yet even though we set out with our eyes wide open, it still proved to be more involved than we had anticipated.
It is a very labour-intensive and time-consuming process that took us two years to complete. I say ‘complete’, but the work of a B Corp is in fact never truly done, as all accredited businesses must submit a business impact report and achieve ‘continuous improvement’ to maintain their B Corp status after three years.
This requires not only the necessary resources but also the requisite degree of buy-in from the senior leadership team in order to be successful — luckily, we had this in spades, as everyone could see the benefits.
And those benefits cannot be underestimated. Becoming a B Corp has already been vastly beneficial from a cultural perspective, as it has allowed us to really connect with what our clients do and has brought in new business for us from businesses who want to work with a law firm that shares their values.
It has also already become clear just how powerful a draw our B Corp status is from a recruitment perspective: talented, high-calibre and values-driven lawyers and business professionals want to work for a firm that is making a real positive impact. Moreover, they want both evidence of this — and (to our pride and amazement) to contribute and build on this impact. From various internal committees, initiatives and volunteering efforts, to a lovely office packed full of amazing B Corp client products, this has been a wonderful experience.
Becoming a B Corp has also opened new doors to us in terms of networking, as we are now a valued member of a community of businesses with shared values, allowing us to forge new professional relationships.
To any firm that is considering applying for B Corp accreditation, my advice is this: be prepared for a rigorous process that requires you to prove that you live by your values, but know that success will bring you clear rewards — from recruitment, culture and purpose to client engagement.
