In the U.S., pro bono service has been an integral part of the way our Legal Department does business for years. It goes to 3M’s bedrock commitment to serve the communities where we do business – all over the world. That’s why we’re now launching pro bono services internationally as well.

And we’re off to quite a start!

We recently hosted a workshop for social entrepreneurs at our offices in the UK, to help coach them through raising investments and scaling their ventures. These great organizations are working to empower people to do some real good in the world. They included Oxford Learning Solutions, trying to develop a new way to learn to read; Aparito, hoping to use technology to bring doctors and patients closer; and others.

We worked with our own Human Resources colleagues and senior attorneys from the leading law firm Hogan Lovells. It felt like a privilege, not only to gain the satisfaction of doing this kind of work, but to know that we had the support of our company while we did it. With the drive and backing of our general counsel, Ivan Fong, and our associate general counsel for international operations, Isabel Gomes, I can imagine this being the first of many similar efforts to come.