WLG | summit Bali '24 Host Firm Makarim & Taira S. Gives Back

Published on Jun 11, 2024

Makarim & Taira S. (WLG member firm for Indonesia) has been a valued network member since 2012. A leading firm in the country for over 44 years, its team of over 90 lawyers offers a full range of corporate, banking, litigation, and specialist legal services to national and international clients while giving back to its local community.

Internal Initiatives

Makarim & Taira S. participated in WLG | impact, World Law Group's network-wide CSR initiative, during its first year, 2021. The firm completed a program in which it initiated the environmentally friendly activity of planting and growing fruit. The firm sent a fruit plant to each of its employees and members of its partner organization, the Indonesian Down Syndrome Association.

In 2022, the firm participated in a Mangrove planting activity at Mangrove Ecotourism Center PIK Jakarta in response to the rapid destruction of the country's mangrove forests. Mangrove forests are essential to the ecosystem as an important habitat for fish and also help protect coastal communities from land erosion, floods, and tsunamis.

In 2023, the firm traveled to Labuan Bajo on Flores Island to help the community combat stunting. As defined by the World Health Organization, stunting is low height-for-age resulting from chronic or recurrent undernutrition. It is often tied to poverty, poor maternal health and nutrition, frequent illness, and inadequate early-life care. Stunting prevents children from reaching their full physical and cognitive potential. During the visit, the firm delivered 300 packages of essential items, including groceries, baby food, vitamins, educational toys, and medical equipment such as baby scales for the healthcare services post, all made possible through contributions from the firm and its employees. Team members enjoyed the added joy of playing with the children, infusing the event with energy and laughter.

Along with these valuable initiatives and others is the crowning jewel of the firm's community impact: its relationship with the Indonesian Down Syndrome Association (ISDI). For more than five years, Makarim & Taira S. has run a program wherein they hire folks with Down Syndrome to come and work three-hour shifts at the firm, earning a salary. The firm prepares its staff to work in unison with these employees by bringing in expert psychologists to run seminars to teach others about Down Syndrome and how to communicate with their new co-workers.

Rina Mailia, the firm's Marketing & Business Development Manager, shares that this arrangement has multiple benefits. Rina sees the awareness that the program encourages as a benefit to society overall.

"Indonesia is a developing country, and some people still have the wrong assumptions about people with Down Syndrome," she explains. The firm is pleased to have a hand in educating others and changing the narrative.

Secondly, and possibly most importantly, "These teammates just create a very positive, calmer environment," Rina says, noting that she can see compassion and happiness spread throughout the office in a hectic and stressful firm environment. "So instead of feeling that we're helping them, sometimes it feels like they're helping us," she adds.

The firm's WLG | impact '24 project will be centered around its involvement with the Down Syndrome community.