They updated the photobooth backgrounds and everything.
Addleshaw Goddard has defended throwing a Hawaii-themed party while the islands struggle with the aftermath of devastating wildfires.
More than 1,000 people are estimated to still be missing in Maui while the death toll has climbed to over 111, making it the deadliest US wildfire in a century.
The disaster placed Addleshaw Goddard in a quandary since its summer event in Scotland this Thursday "was planned many months ago around a Hawaii theme”, Addleshaws told RollOnFriday in a statement. However, it decided it would be preferable to plough on.
“In light of the terrible events in Hawaii we of course considered cancelling or trying to re-brand the event", said the firm, "but decided after great thought and some consultation to go ahead explaining to staff earlier this week that it was not a thoughtless and insensitive decision but one to which we have given considerable thought”.
The firm sought to alleviate any concerns around tone deafness by making concessions to the fact that the actual Hawaii had gone up in flames and its people were trapped under rubble.
“Our thoughts are of course with the people of Maui”, said the firm, and now “a charity raffle will run on the evening with proceeds going to the Hawaii Wildfire Relief Fund and the Addleshaw Goddard Trust has also agreed to match fund”.
It may be something of a downer for guests that the focus of their summer party has flipped from 'hula skirts' to ‘unspeakable tragedy’, but the firm rebuffed one source's claim that the event was occurring over objections from employees that it was "inappropriate”.
“As far as we know, there have been no protestations from staff, certainly none have come to the attention of our senior leadership team”, the firm said.
The last time an Addleshaws party raised eyebrows it was the Scots who were sore, after the Manchester office celebrated merging with a Scottish firm by serving up deep-fried Mars Bars.
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Comments
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‘Rest assured everyone, this isn’t us being thoughtless. We’ve actually thought about this, and STILL managed to reached this decision!’
Brilliant.
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Appreciating that any lawyers' party will have a lot of pedants in attendance, would it have been so difficult to rebrand as a Caribbean theme?
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I don't really see an issue with this. The culture of Hawaii hasn't been wiped out and they are holding a charity sale for it.
If it was a Russian celebration event, that may be different...
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Another example of the legal profession being out of touch of reality.
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Some people take offence at anything.
Surely the important bit is that they're raising money for the relief fund?
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@ 3-ducks
"Surely the important bit is that they're raising money for the relief fund?"
Really? The important bit is that they still want to go ahead with their Hawaii-themed party and the fund raiser helps them to justify doing so in the circumstances. Sounds a bit like say some of the criticism of the ULEZ stuff and it being OK to pollute as long as you pay the charge.
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More like they didn’t want to spend extra money on changing it
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"Surely the important bit is that they're raising money for the relief fund?"
Nonesense!
Peformative wailing on the internet about how offended you are on behalf of others is far more important than trivialities like 'actually doing something to help those affected' or 'putting your money where your mouth is'. This is 2023 for God's sake!
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@ LondonLife
"If it was a Russian celebration event, that may be different..."
Some might consider that that would be OK... as long as they raised some money for Ukraine.
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If victimhood and being offended were professional careers, some of these people would be millionaires
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"If victimhood and being offended were professional careers, some of these people would be millionaires"
It is and they are.
Professional offence-seeking is a career option for Progressives in the same way as shock-jock radio hosting is for Conservatives.
These endless hue and cry performances are literally some peoples careers.
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At least it gives the I'm offended by absolutely everything brigade something new to get their collective knickers in a twist over.
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Really tired of these snowflake articles popping up. Some people just want to watch the world burn.
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What's Addleshaw Goddard? Never heard of them.
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This is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.
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A charity raffle. So that makes it OK?
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‘Anonymous Anonymous 18 August 23 09:55
Another example of the legal profession being out of touch of reality.’
No. This is actually an example of AG and the legal profession doing the right thing and not going overboard by placing PC over common sense.
Hawaiian themed events celebrate the culture and take place all the time. There’s no good reason to cancel here. Celebrating a Hawaiian event in no way equates to a celebration of the misery going on in Hawaii as a result of natural disasters.
Nothing would be served by this kind of knee jerk cancellation of events..
Plus, they seem to have taken advantage to turn this into a fund raiser for Hawaii too - which is kudos to them.
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"A charity raffle. So that makes it OK?"
No.
The fact that there's no problem with a Hawaii themed night makes it ok.
The charity raffle is an added bonus.
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Nothing to see here, more along.
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Loving the hapless PRs at AG desperately getting their mates to chip in here and pretend this is anything other than a tone deaf clusterf@ck.
Hopeless decision made by a second rate firm, not for the first time.
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Get a grip ffs. Why is this even in the news? There’s a ton of awfulness going on in every firm that should be out there. Partner greed, catastrophic lack of resilience, associate burn out, predatorial sexual behaviour, general f*ck€ry. All these guys are doing is throwing a party.
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Because it’s darkly amusing, my poor hippo
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My neighbours invited me to a barbecue.
A VEGETARIAN BARBECUE.
Have you seen that state of the trees on that Maui?
I was so offended that I had no alternative but to call the police.
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Tasteless and tone deaf.
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The essence of any joke or occasion should be considered within its context. If there's no ill intent or effort to cause distress, and the intentions are positive, such actions should be deemed acceptable. In the given scenario, the members of the law firm aimed to enjoy themselves, but they're facing criticism in the media due to the prevailing circumstances in the relevant area. It's worth empathizing with the actual employees in this situation. These are regular individuals engaged in monotonous, exhausting, and often soul-draining jobs at a rather average law firm, while their limited time on this planet is slipping away. Perhaps we should redirect our energies towards more constructive pursuits instead of subjecting them to negativity for seeking a bit of light-hearted enjoyment.
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Who in their right mind would let the partners know the event is poor taste ?! I’d bet everyone was thinking it though. Do a quick anonymous poll with slido and see what the troops think.
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‘’’’Anonymous 18 August 23 15:32
Loving the hapless PRs at AG desperately getting their mates to chip in here and pretend this is anything other than a tone deaf clusterf@ck. ‘
Wow.
So, the real clusterff*ckage is created by people like you who turn it into one by shouting out loud behind a keyboard about tone deaf un-PCness. Too much of this crap in this day and age passes as ‘let’s call out employers’ nonsense - but guess what? There’s nothing to call out here but the trouble making one sided bloody minded shit-stirring tendencies of people who make comments like the ones you’ve made.
And no, nothing to do with HR of AG - you don’t need to be anything to do with AG to see that this is a non-issue being jumped on by opportunistic stirrers.
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DISGRACEFUL. How DARE you dring the Goddard name into disrepute?
CEASE using it IMMEDIATELY or face legal action.