Downey Brand Wins Another 1st Place Award in Sacramento Business Journal’s Best Places to Work
October 15, 2020
Downey Brand is proud to announce that it has won first place in the Sacramento Business Journal’s Best Places to Work “large” category, which represents companies with 150-499 employees. This is the Firm’s third year in a row being recognized as one of the Sacramento region’s Best Places to Work.
This year’s win is especially meaningful given the challenges that companies and their employees had to endure as a result of COVID-19. From the beginning of the pandemic, like so many other companies, Downey Brand had to pivot to a telework environment, requiring employees to quickly adopt to a new working normal, which hasn’t always been easy.
Downey Brand’s Managing Partner, Scott Shapiro, who has been with the Firm for 26 years recalled his first leadership team conversation once it was clear the Firm needed to act:
“We very quickly decided our actions would be guided by three principles. First, how to protect the health and safety of our people. Second, how to ensure that every client continued to receive the best representation possible. And third, to be guided by the notion that we were all in this together, and needed to come out of it together as well.”
Employees noted how the Firm’s transparency and firm-wide communication, which are part of the ordinary course of business at Downey Brand, have been stepped up during telework, so no one is left wondering for too long about where things stand or the impact on them personally. Employees have also appreciated the efforts of the Firm’s HR Director, Cindy Snook, who has been reaching out individually to employees to conduct wellness checks. These measures, and the “team” culture that Downey Brand fosters, where employees are acknowledged and rewarded for their outstanding contributions towards helping clients achieve success, continue to be at the core of what makes Downey Brand one of the best places to work.
“I am so proud of our firm,” said Cindy Snook. “It is so exciting to work for a company that empowers its employees to strive for excellence while providing them with a working environment that is pleasant and flexible. It truly is the best place to work!”
Best Places to Work honors companies with operations in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties. Employees of nominated companies were asked to answer questions that measure employee engagement in several categories, including teamwork, trust, compensation, and benefits. A third-party company evaluated the responses and identified first-, second-, and third-place winners in each size category.