Blog — Around the water cooler

Each week I will highlight a different case or legal happening, and solicit your thoughts on the impact of it in the legal community.

Many lawyers find causes outside their law firms, ways to get involved and help the community. Marla J. Kreindler, a partner at Winston & Strawn, is one of those individuals.

Kreindler was recently named a member of the board of directors for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF was founded in 1947 to support the work of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) by raising funds for its programs and increasing awareness of the challenges facing the world’s children, according to the organization’s website.

Kreindler got involved in the organization through a friend and client who invited her to attend a couple programs and meetings.

“I feel very strongly about finding ways I can personally support children, in particular children around the world in need,” she said. “I think UNICEF is a terrific organization that is helping in so many ways that it continues to inspire me.”

She recently helped promote and support the Tap Project, an initiative where restaurants nationwide encouraged their patrons to donate a $1 for every glass of tap water they receive. All the money then went to UNICEF.

Each dollar could provide one needy child with clean water for 40 days or 40 children clean water for one day, she said. More than one billion people do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation and one in five of them are children, according to UNICEF. Eighty percent of all illness and infant mortality is due to waterborne disease. Lack of clean water is the second largest killer of children under five.

“To me when you hear about the programs that they have, it’s really hard to not want to support it,” Kreindler said. “I’m on the board and what that means in the Chicago area is that I really am trying to help promote and support both the visibility of UNICEF and help UNICEF get greater resources to serve its mission, including through corporate, individual and foundation support.”

Throughout her career, she said she’s been involved in a number of professional organizations. She said she believes in the importance of getting involved in outside groups, whether professional or charitable.

“It helps me personally grow, but at the same time, is a way to help others beyond the four walls of my office,” she said. “I always tell people not to be afraid to do things incrementally. If you start [getting involved] a little bit at a time in a particular organization and get that under your belt, you find that you can add more things and it becomes second nature.

“The advice somebody gave me a long time ago is you should be really careful. Before you get involved in an organization, review the mission of the organization and get to know other people on the board and make sure it is something that interests you,” she said. “If you are willing to help and can be consistent and dependable and really put your effort into it, there is really no limit to how much you can get involved.”

To learn more about UNICEF, visit www.unicefusa.org.