Social Commitment

Ethics & Professional Standards

Bernick & Beck is committed to the highest ethical and professional standards across our own team and the independent attorneys in our network. Network Attorneys are required to act professionally and in compliance with the laws, regulations, and bar rules that apply in their own jurisdiction. We don't supervise their practice, but we do vet for good standing before listing anyone in the network, and we remove any attorney who falls out of good standing.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Legal needs are not confined to one demographic, and neither is our network. We welcome Network Attorneys of every background, and we do not condition eligibility, placement, or referral volume on anything other than licensing status, relevant experience, and capacity to take on new matters. Internally, we hire and promote based on merit and hold our own team to equal-opportunity standards regardless of race, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or national origin.

Access to Justice & Community Engagement

Part of what a referral network can do that a single firm can't is widen access: matching people to the right attorney regardless of how well they already know the legal system. We encourage Network Attorneys to take on pro bono and reduced-fee matters where they're able, and we look for opportunities to support legal literacy and access-to-justice initiatives in the communities our network reaches.

Anti-Corruption & Anti-Bribery

Our own team is required to comply with applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in how we operate the platform, market the network, and handle referral fees. We do not condition referrals on anything beyond an attorney's standing, relevant experience, and capacity to take on new matters, and we do not accept payments intended to influence who gets matched to a given matter.

Human Rights

We support the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. As a small platform team, our direct footprint is limited, but we hold our own vendors and suppliers to the same expectation of respecting internationally recognized human rights, and we expect the same of Network Attorneys in how they run their own practices.

Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking

Bernick & Beck opposes all forms of slavery and human trafficking, and takes reasonable steps to ensure neither occurs in our own operations or supply chains. Any Network Attorney or vendor found complicit in either is removed from the network immediately.

Environmental Responsibility

As a platform business, our direct environmental footprint is small, but we take reasonable steps to minimize it: favoring digital-first operations over paper, choosing infrastructure and vendors with credible efficiency practices where we have the choice, and avoiding unnecessary travel and physical infrastructure that a distributed, independent-attorney network doesn't require in the first place.

Data Privacy & Security

Confidential intake details are encrypted at rest and access is limited to the staff who need it to do their jobs. We don't sell personal information. See ourPrivacy & Cookies Statement andPrivacy Rights & Disclosures for the full detail on what we collect, why, and the rights available to you depending on where you're located.

Supplier & Third-Party Standards

Vendors and service providers we engage are expected to meet the same baseline of legal compliance, anti-corruption, labor standards, and data protection we hold ourselves to. See our Supplier Code of Conduct for the full standard.

Governance & Oversight

Network Attorney eligibility, the jurisdiction-dependent counterparty structure required to participate in the network, and any conduct concerns are reviewed by our own compliance function, not left to self-certification. We keep records of that review and revisit an attorney's standing if a concern is raised.

Reporting Concerns

If you become aware of conduct by Bernick & Beck, a Network Attorney, or a vendor that falls short of these standards, report it to[email protected]. We do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who reports a concern in good faith.

Our Commitment to Improvement

These standards are reviewed periodically and updated as the network grows. Where we identify a gap between what we say here and how we actually operate, we treat closing it as a priority, not a public-relations exercise.