Our Culture
At Irell & Manella, creativity and intellectual curiosity aren’t just things we value—they’re what make us who we are. This is a place where every voice matters, and each individual’s contributions shape not only the firm’s culture but also the critical work done for clients every day.
Irell has always been committed to creating an environment where attorneys of all backgrounds can thrive. This focus permeates our culture and has resulted in a population of attorneys with a range of experiences. All partners are equity partners, and partners with varied backgrounds have served on the firm’s Executive Committee and in other firm leadership positions, including as managing partner. Irell’s commitment to fostering a welcoming culture dates back to its founding and has never wavered. The wide-ranging personal and professional backgrounds of our people foster innovation, broaden perspectives and strengthen teams. This array of different points of view enriches our firm and helps us better serve our clients across the world.
“Irell & Manella is focused on delivering the highest quality legal services and achieving excellence through diligence and creativity. Our attorneys are hired and evaluated based on the quality of their work. This focus has penetrated our culture and resulted in a population of attorneys from a variety of backgrounds.”
– Kyle Kawakami, Newport Beach Managing Partner
The firm believes the best ideas come from collaboration and encourages everyone to take initiative, lead and make a meaningful impact—whether in the courtroom or the community. Pro bono work and giving back are deeply ingrained in Irell’s values, and the firm takes pride in the positive difference it has made throughout the communities it serves.
Community Involvement
Irell is committed to supporting many community organizations throughout Southern California and nationwide. The firm’s attorneys and staff engage in a wide variety of public service activities, including funding research institutions and scholarship programs, sponsoring nonprofit events, nonprofit board leadership positions and participating in volunteer work.
City of Hope’s Irell & Manella School of Biological Sciences
Irell’s relationship with City of Hope, one of America’s preeminent research and treatment centers, began in 1998 when the firm started representing City of Hope in a landmark intellectual property lawsuit. Before long, the firm’s passion for City of Hope’s case evolved into a passion for its cause. In 2002, Irell began expanding the relationship with City of Hope by making gifts in support of the graduate school’s endowment and also establishing a symposium and a lecture fund. Individual lawyers also made gifts for the school’s endowment and the firm’s staff took on the cause, making quilts on their own time for City of Hope patients undergoing painful treatment.
Then the firm began considering doing something bigger and more unusual. The idea emerged to make a major grant to the graduate school. This ultimately took the form of a $5 million donation, which was matched by a $5 million anonymous gift. An additional gift of $2 million created the Irell & Manella Visiting Professorship. The firm also donated $3 million to establish the Irell & Manella Cancer Director’s Distinguished Chair. On May 15, 2009, City of Hope named its graduate school the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences. Our association with City of Hope continues to this day and Morgan Chu is Chair of the Board of the City of Hope National Medical Center, which oversees the work of City of Hope hospitals and clinics. For more information on this unique relationship, please click here.
Public Counsel’s Irell & Manella Chair in Public Interest Law
In 2012, Irell established the first-ever endowed chair for Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono law firm. Public Counsel’s activities are far-ranging and impact the lives of people living at or below the poverty level, support the growth of nonprofits and small businesses, and affect public policy through litigation and advocacy. Public Counsel’s attorneys are active in, among other causes, veterans’ advocacy, homelessness prevention law, children’s rights, immigrants’ rights, appellate law and federal pro se. For more, please see Public Counsel’s website.
Irell is a committed provider of pro bono legal services and has a long record of support for the activities of Public Counsel. Morgan Chu is the longest-serving board member at Public Counsel. Irell associates and partners handle numerous pro bono matters through Public Counsel for various clients in need, including mortgage fraud victims and veterans.
“Public Counsel relies on the talents and dedication of major law firms and top attorneys to fulfill our mission of ensuring access to justice for under-served communities. We are grateful to our friends at Irell & Manella for establishing Public Counsel’s first-ever endowed chair and for empowering attorneys to dedicate their talents to address the areas in our community where justice is in greatest doubt.”
– Hernán Vera, former president and CEO of Public Counsel
PROJECT SELF
Each summer, Irell’s Newport Beach office hosts interns in connection with PROJECT SELF (Summer Employment in Law Firm), a hands-on internship for high school juniors that provides access to professional and career environments and positive mentors to help them with goal setting and college preparation. The program is run by Project Youth OCBF in partnership with the Orange County Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators.
Community Leadership
Attorneys in the firm have for many years held senior leadership positions and dedicated many volunteer hours to local and regional nonprofit, public-interest and legal organizations, as well as educational, cultural and art institutions, including:
Bet Tzedek Legal Services is a nonprofit organization that provides free, expert legal advice and representation to low-income residents of Los Angeles. Amy Proctor currently serves on the board.
Public Counsel is the largest pro bono law office in the nation. Morgan Chu currently serves on the board of directors and its executive committee.
Stanford Board of Visitors plays an important role in helping the dean of the law school respond to particular challenges facing legal education. Kyle Kawakami currently serves on the board.
Los Angeles Innocence Project provides pro bono investigatory services and legal representation to indigent individuals in Central and Southern California who were convicted of crimes they did not commit. Thomas Barr and Amy Proctor serve on the board, and Dr. Barr also provides pro bono consulting as a forensic scientist.
University of California, Irvine School of Law (UCI Law) named its pro bono program in recognition of Mike Ermer. The Michael G. Ermer Pro Bono Program pays tribute to Mike’s dedication to public service and his significant contributions and long support of UCI Law’s public service law program.
Pro Bono
Pro bono work is an important and rewarding part of our profession. We have a long-standing and top-down commitment to pro bono work. Irell is a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®, reinforcing our firm-wide commitment to provide pro bono legal services to individuals and families as well as nonprofit groups.
Our pro bono program encourages all new hires (whether a first-year or a lateral) to bill at least 60 hours of pro bono work within their first year at the firm. We count associates’ pro bono hours equally with client billable hours.
Our pro bono work is driven by the interests of our attorneys. New associates complete a survey of their primary pro bono areas of interest and are matched with a coordinator who identifies opportunities tailored to those interests, connects them with supervising partners and provides support as they pursue matters that align with their passions.
As just one example of that pro bono work, in partnership with the Alliance for Children’s Rights, Irell attorneys and summer associates participate in the annual Adoption Saturday program, in which people work together to help children’s dreams of a permanent family come true in a single, special day. Leading up to the official adoption day, individual attorneys and law firms like Irell volunteer their services to adoptive parents. The attorneys work with child welfare workers to help fast-track paperwork. Judicial officers and the entire courtroom staff open a courthouse on a Saturday just to handle adoption proceedings. Community volunteers donate time and gifts to create a festive atmosphere that makes the day even more memorable for young and old. Read more about Adoption Saturday.
Charitable Giving
Irell established the Irell & Manella Foundation through which the firm donates to a variety of causes and endows a number of educational institutions.
Irell staff members and attorneys also volunteer with a number of local charity organizations, including Food from the Bar, Adopt-A-Family and Habitat for Humanity.