United Legal Canberra is raising awareness and much needed funds to help autistic children live full and exciting lives.
“There is a lot of greed in this world,” United Legal Director Peter Glover said. “As legal professionals we earn large sums of money. Wouldn’t it be great if kindness was in every business culture. If we lead the way, maybe others will follow.”
At United Legal we decided to put a simple plan in place for our clients to donate to the Ricky Stuart Foundation after we saw that families needed support.
“There are such a large number of children who have autism and we need to do more to help them and their families,” Mr Glover said.
“People are often not exposed to autistic kids because of this restrictive ability they have to communicate and mix with others. They tend to be socially isolated and people don’t really know what it is like to interact with them.
“My 11 year old son, Juan Miguel was the catalyst for our decision to do more. He has autism and it is heart-breaking because he struggles to make friends.
“If people took more time to get to know those with autism, like my son, they would find great joy. By his very nature, Juan doesn’t have the traits that other people have – he doesn’t know jealousy, greed or dishonesty. While he might get frustrated, he doesn’t know rivalry and those who meet him are quite taken by him.”
As a Lawyer, Mr Glover felt his firm was in unique situation to give back to the community and highlight April as World Autism Awareness month.
“We offer discounts to our clients regarding our fees and we decided that we would offer further discounts under the proviso that a donation was made to the Ricky Stuart Foundation, the RSPCA or other chosen charities.
“To date the feedback has been extremely positive, with around 30 of our clients over the last 12 to 18 months agreeing to donate between $1000-$3000 each, of their legal fees.
“We have also had great support from Josh Papalii, who stars in our latest television campaign by Channel Marketing Creative, alongside Juan and his assistance dog, to raise awareness for our support of autism.”