Core Virtues
We do everything as an act of worship. We test everything against the question “Is this worthy of a work-product that bears God’s name?”
We are only interested in taking on representations that we believe we can perform or otherwise handle with excellence. In assessing our ability to handle a new matter, we consider not only our experience but also our ability to obtain the requisite competence by associating with other professionals who have relevant experience, undertaking specialized training, or performing the necessary research and study. Consistent with our principles of loyalty and integrity, if training, research or study necessary to handle a matter with excellence is needed in order for us to get more familiar with a practice area, then the time and cost of that preparation should for our account and not the client’s.
LOYALTY
Loyalty to God, to each other, to our clients and to our families.
Our loyalty to different constituents has practical implications for how we work. For example, our loyalty to God means that we respect (and ask our clients to respect) the honoring of a Sabbath day by our people, and our work expectations take into account faith as a higher priority. It also means that we will not represent businesses that we believe exploit weaknesses in people or that degrade people. Our loyalty to each other means that training and mentoring is a priority and we pitch in to help each other. Loyalty to our clients means that we do not bill more than we or they believe is fair, that we take extra care to avoid potential conflicts, that we make personal sacrifices to ensure excellence and that we strive to do work as efficiently as is consistent with excellence. Loyalty to our families means that our work expectations take into account family as a higher priority.
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INTEGRITY
This is not only integrity in the sense of honesty or incorruptibility. Even more importantly for us, it is integrity in the sense of being “complete and undivided”. We strive to be who we say we are. We want our behavior behind and outside our walls to align with our virtues, mission, and principles. We strive to live undivided lives in which all we do is informed, guided and part of our faith.
For us, integrity means that we will not knowingly engage in deceptive practices or misleading communications, either on behalf of the Firm or a client and that we will only bill what we believe is fair and reasonable. But it also means that we will try to create a culture of shalom in our Firm where all of our people understand and are aligned with the Firm’s vision and core virtues, where all people feel valued, and where all people have a voice. It also means that our work expectations take faith and family into account as higher priorities.