There are no Ebenezer Scrooges at Waterbury, Conn.’s Carmody & Torrance. Collectively, the firm’s 63 lawyers and its support staff shelled out $34,000 to the United Way of Central Naugatuck Valley in 1998, according to Roger A. Milici Jr., the agency’s executive director.

And whether it was to that United Way chapter or the one in New Haven, where the firm also has an office, all 32 of Carmody’s partners have been recognized for individual United Way contributions in excess of $1,000, adds managing partner James K. Robertson Jr.