Mayor of Richardson Recognizes Immigration Trailblazer BAL for 'Tremendous' Community Service

DALLAS, Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacesetting global immigration firm BAL was lauded last night by the mayor of the city of Richardson, Texas, in the annual State of the City address. The environmentally minded law firm set a record by providing the largest group of volunteers to partake in the city's Community and Corporate Environmental Cleanup program.

Applauding BAL for its "tremendous showing of community spirit," three-term Mayor Paul Voelker, who has overseen the cleanup since 2017, invited BAL Partner Kortney Gibson to attend his address in person and stand for official recognition by the audience.

"It is an honor to be recognized by the mayor and the city for our volunteer work," said Kortney, who manages BAL's local operations and Center of Excellence. "We pride ourselves on extending our time and efforts and compassion into initiatives that support the environment and our local community."

In July, 500 BAL team members from the firm's Richardson headquarters gathered at the nearby Spring Creek Nature Area preserve to clean up sections of heavily wooded terrain. The earth-conscious BAL team was the largest cadre of volunteers to partner with the city's Environmental Cleanup program outside of the city's annual Trash Bash initiative. The city facilitates the cleanup initiative to maintain the popular 100-acre nature destination, which is nestled within a thriving urban environment.

BAL Partner Stephanie Pimentel coordinated the volunteer effort as part of the annual firm-wide volunteer "Service Day," in which teams from BAL's 14 offices around the country volunteer for a project of their choosing to help their local communities.

"Coordinating the Service Day was one of the highlights of my year," said Stephanie, who also attended the mayor's address. "Joining with 500 colleagues to beautify the nature area and preserve our local environment was an inspiring reminder that the work BAL does to make a positive difference in people's lives doesn't stop with our clients and teams, but extends beyond the front door to the communities we are a part of."

About BAL
BAL, the world's leading corporate immigration law firm, is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable businesses to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, people-centered client services and leading technology innovation. In 2018, BAL entered into a first-of-its-kind strategic alliance with Deloitte U.K. to create the world's first global immigration service delivery model. BAL's proprietary Cobalt^® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product, the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services and Legalweek's Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500 and Who's Who Legal. BAL has ranked #1 on multiple industry rankings for diversity, equity and inclusion, including the #1 Law Firm for Women by the National Law Journal four years in a row (2019-2022), #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), and #1 on Law360's Diversity Snapshot for three years running (2020-2022). BAL won in seven of Comparably's Best Company categories, including Diversity, Women, Career Growth and Perks & Benefits. The Dallas Business Journal named BAL one of only a handful of the 2022 Best Places to Work based exclusively on employee feedback. US News & World Report–Best Lawyers named BAL the 2023 Immigration Law Firm of the Year.

SOURCE Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP