Women Business Owners Giving Voice to Their Communities

Firm President & CEO Rebecca Geller and The Geller Law Group recently were featured in ,ADP’s Spark Blog focusing on women- and minority-owned businesses.

Excerpt from article:

Flexibility to Do & Be Good

Rebecca Geller, owner of The Geller Law Group in Virginia, started her law firm when her first two children were younger than 3. She saw brilliant women fleeing large, traditional law firms because of a lack of work-life balance: “The legal profession was trying to make women fit into work models designed by men,” she says. In 2011, Geller left a very large Washington, D.C., firm to start her own company, offering genuine work-life balance with flexible hours and telecommuting.

Geller believes employees who are happy in their lives are going to be happy in their careers, and vice versa: “Autonomy and control equal better performance,” she says, and numerous studies by SHRM, ADPRI, and industry analysts have shown this to be true. Corporations of all sizes are basing HR policy on these studies, offering greater flexibility and benefits that satisfy employees on a personal level as they recognize the positive impact on their bottom lines when employees are happy at work.

Geller attributes the success of her firm’s employment model to trust. Her team is comprised of 23 women, 15 of whom are lawyers. She trusts her employees to get their work done on time and with high quality and doesn’t need to know their whereabouts every minute. Word is spreading about Geller’s firm, and 99% of resumes come from women: “We’re hiring right now, and the number 1 reason people apply here is the flexibility. We offer and promote the values that people want in their lives. In addition to being known for our flexible schedules, our firm also values social justice and community service very highly. There’s been a generational shift [to values-based employment choices].”

One of the main organizations that Geller’s firm supports is the Lorton Community Action Center (LCAC), which provides low-income people and families in southeast Fairfax County, Virginia, with access to basic needs and self-sufficiency programs. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Geller started a food and supply drive in support of LCAC through Amazon. In August alone, the effort generated enough donations to assemble 9,000 snack packs (grab-and-go food and supplies LCAC distributes to clients). The firm matches all donations.

When Geller sees a need in the community, she puts the power of her law firm and passion for social justice into action. The firm is located in the Washington, D.C., area, and many of its clients were affected in January 2019 by a prolonged federal shutdown and forced to go without pay for a significant period of time. In the midst of a major filing system overhaul, Geller’s firm hired furloughed federal employees as temporary workers to get the new system up and running. Three administrators at the firm hired, vetted and trained 25 to 30 temporary employees in just a few days.