Reflecting on September: Showing Up and Speaking Up with Purpose

At Nazareth Bonifacino Law, being a force for good in law means stepping into conversations where ideas, business, and purpose intersect and helping move the dialog forward with clarity, courage, and care. This September gave Natasha Nazareth and Ginny Bonifacino the opportunity to be on the road – from Florida to Virginia to Maryland – and to have meaningful conversations, share insights, and speak up on topics that matter to our clients, colleagues, and community.

Our month began in St. Petersburg, FL, at BLD Southeast, where Certified B Corps and purpose-driven business leaders gathered to advance a more just, equitable, and sustainable future. Natasha and Ginny hosted a “legal office hours” style workshop for attendees, focusing on topics such as using AI responsibly and legally to further our missions and the current state of law and business strategy given the backlash against ESG and DEI in many parts of the U.S. We returned home energized and confident that we’re doing purposeful and necessary work, and a reminder that collaboration within the business community is effective to build a thriving business ecosystem.

In mid-September, Ginny Bonifacino attended the Connecting Communities Small Business Summit hosted by the Maryland Women’s Business Center and sponsored by the National Disability Institute. Ginny sat on the “From Ideas to Action” panel, a discussion designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs with disabilities to take their passion and innovative ideas and turn them into successful businesses. One of the key takeaways was that entrepreneurs cannot build a business alone–having an team of professional advisors and peers will help a company thrive. We were honored to help make those dreams a little more possible by sharing practical steps to turn vision into reality.

In mid-September, Natasha Nazareth again offered legal office hours for the B Talent & Culture Network, an online community of Certified B Corps around the US and Canada. The session focused on how employment policy choices at B Corps may differ from traditional companies while both operating from a heart-led, human-first place and staying compliant with local/state/federal laws. Key take-aways included that companies need to continually monitor state and local compliance topics in a remote-first or distributed workforce, that intentionality in building the company culture creates strong ROI especially during a downturn, and that transparency in communication helps employees understand, accept, and even embrace change.

We closed the month with a trip the Virginia Women Attorneys Association 2025 Biennial Conference in Staunton, VA. Our topic? A deep dive on how to use AI responsibly as lawyers, complete with practical prompting strategies to enhance productivity and client service. AI is here to stay. It can be a valuable tool when used properly. Lawyers and business owners must review their current AI usage and develop policies to ensure responsible use.