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Allens' staff swaps corporate law for kitty litter

user iconLawyers Weekly 02 June 2010 NewLaw

Almost half the Allens Arthur Robinson Perth office traded the corporate life last week to unload kitty litter and perform laundry duties for grateful pooches.Partners, lawyers and corporate…

Almost half the Allens Arthur Robinson Perth office traded the corporate life last week to unload kitty litter and perform laundry duties for grateful pooches.

Partners, lawyers and corporate services staff abandoned paperwork and phone calls for a day to get their hands dirty and assist some furry friends at the firm's Community Day.

Around 25 volunteers were put to work at Cat Haven in Perth's Shenton Park.

Gardening, sanding and painting the cat kennels (reports surfaced that more paint ended up on shoes, clothes and hair than on the kennels), unloading two tonnes of kitty litter, and delivering boxes of donated towels, sheets, cat food and cat toys were undertaken by the volunteers.

Those volunteers not partial to feline company went to the Dogs' Refuge Home, also in Shenton Park, where they helped get the doggy odour out of dirty beds, blankets and other canine laundry items.

"Our Community Day was developed and implemented by our staff," said Perth Practice Director Andrew Pascoe.

"It was fuelled by their desire to do something truly productive such that, at the end of the day, the dirt on their hands, and the non-water-based paint drips in their hair, would bear witness to hard work."

For those volunteers less inclined to deal with four-legged creatures, a team was sent to St. Bartholomew's House in East Perth, which gives assistance and shelter to men in crisis and need within the Perth area.

Gardening was again the order of the day, and four of the team embraced their Backyard Blitz alter egos to assist an elderly man tidy his garden, which was subject to a formal clean-up notice.

"I can measure its success only by reference to how I felt at the end of the day," said Pascoe.

"[I was] physically tired, humbled ... enriched by the experience of moving tonnes of mulch around a garden with my friends and colleagues, and very proud to be able to report to my kids that I spent my day doing something fundamentally good."

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