Adding Economic Justice to a Social Justice Teaching Agenda: The
Role of Clinics Representing Non-Profits, Microenterprises and Social
Enterprises
Barbara Schatz
Columbia Law School
University Law School
Susan Jones
George Washington
University Law School
GAJE 7th Worldwide Conference
Sonipat, India
December 2013
Plan for our session
What is an entrepreneurship clinic?
Why is entrepreneurship important?
Why teach an entrepreneurship clinic?
What are the challenges of an
entrepreneurship clinic?
How would an entrepreneurship clinic work
in your environment?
What is an Entrepreneurship Clinic?
Who are the clients?

non-profit organizations

microenterprises

social entrepreneurs

incubators

arts organizations
What is an Entrepreneurship Clinic?
What services does the clinic
provide?
Free, non-litigation legal services (or
advice only)
 Education for entrepreneurs
 Policy analysis and advocacy
 Business resources through partnerships
and referrals

Microenterprises
Harlem dessert company

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Makes and sells healthy desserts to Harlem stores and
restaurants
“Incubated” by Hot Bread Kitchen which helps low-income
and foreign women break into the food industry and educates
New Yorkers about the contributions of immigrant
communities
Students helped client avoid trademark litigation over the
name of her business
Social Enterprises
Tutoring Business

Helps low-income students prepare for college entrance exams

Fees from higher income students help subsidize services to
low-income kids

Clinic students formed a legal entity, advised on employment
issues and drafted contract between the business and its tutors
Social Enterprises
Aquaponics business
Developing aquaponic facilities in NYC to produce fresh
food and distribute some at a discount to low-income
New Yorkers
 Students counseled business on tax and governance
issues and drafted operating agreement

Non-Profit Organizations
Residents Associations of Public Housing
Projects
Students helped associations to form legal entities with
tax benefits to permit better services to their low-income
residents and communities
 Students worked with associations to improve
governance

Community Legal Education and Policy Work
Community Legal Education
Workshops for microenterprises and non-profits
 Manuals for microenterprises and non-profits

Policy Work



Conference: Barriers to Microenterprise
Advocacy to improve law and regulations governing nonprofits
Action Research
Action Research
The Workplace DC
Why is Entrepreneurship Important?
 Small
businesses create jobs
 Entrepreneurship = gateway to work for those
without formal education
 Entrepreneurship = income for those who can’t
find jobs
 Component of a workforce development plan
 Technological advances fuel entrepreneurship
Why is Entrepreneurship Important?
o Entrepreneurship and community economic
development
o
Community economic development is “the creation or strengthening
of economic institutions that are controlled or owned by the
residents of the low-income community in which they are
located…that will
• attract outside capital into the area
• improve the physical environment
• increase job and entrepreneurial opportunities for residents
• provide or encourage others to provide more accessible services
and goods to residents
•…create conditions under which the community can participate in
the economic advantages of the rest of society. “
Why Teach an Entrepreneurship Clinic?
Promote Economic Justice
o
Through free legal assistance, community education,
policy analysis and advocacy:
o help low-income people and others who are out of the
economic mainstream to start and operate businesses
o help non-profits and social enterprises which provide
resources to low-income individuals and
communities to start-up and thrive
Why teach an Entrepreneurship Clinic?
Students Learn Unique Skills and
Values







Interview and counsel organizations rather than
individuals
Represent clients in a planning/transactional context
Learn what it takes to grow a business or non-profit
Draft corporate documents and contracts
Negotiate transactions
Collaborate with business, finance, management
professionals
Observe and analyze the role of entrepreneurship in
promoting economic justice
Why teach an Entrepreneurship Clinic?
Meet student needs and interests

Prepare students for:
o
o
o
o

careers representing enterprises
pro bono work and board service
careers as entrepreneurs
entrepreneurial approach to law practice
Form professional identity
o
o
Show career paths that are not black and white –
business law work that promotes social justice
Show variety of lawyering roles when representing
enterprises
Issues and Challenges
Setting priorities
o
o
o
Who sets them?
Eclectic or focused?
Mission driven or responses to requests?
Establishing criteria for choosing clients and
defining scope of work
Issues and Challenges
Possible Criteria:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Inability to afford legal services?
Contribution to economic justice?
Likelihood of success?
Need for the service or product?
Business plan? Sources of non-legal help?
Availability of other pro bono services?
Student interest?
Pedagogical value?
Clinic’s competence to handle the matter?
Work which students can complete within the semester or
year?
Entrepreneurship Clinics Worldwide
United States
o
Currently 145 entrepreneurship clinics at US law schools
United Kingdom
o
o
o
Northumbria University, Newcastle-on-Tyne
Queen Mary University of London
University of South Wales, Pontypridd
Georgia
o
Free University (FreeUni), Tbilisi
Croatia
o
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University, Osijek
I-Link
Others?
How would an entrepreneurship clinic work in
your environment?
Quick write :
Would an entrepreneurship clinic be feasible and
useful your environment? What issues do you
anticipate?
Details and Resources
Small Business and Community Economic Development
Clinic, George Washington University Law School
o Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic- Law 6621
Professor Susan Jones, Director
 Professor Kevin Peska, Adjunct
 Professor Alice Hamilton Evert, Visiting Associate (Fellowship)
 8-10 Students
o Eligibility
 Open to 2nd and 3rd year students
 Prerequisites: Law 6250 (Corporations) and Law 6300 (Federal Income Tax)
 Recommended: Law 6472 (Copyright), Law 6474 (Unfair Competition & Trademark
Law), and 6314 (Nonprofit Organizations: Law and Taxation)
o Credit hours/duration
 Students may enroll for 4, 5, or 6 credits
o 4 Credits- 16 hours per week 208 hours/semester
o 5 credits- 20 hours per week
260 hours/semester
o 6 credits- 24 hours per week
312 hours/ semester
o One semester clinic

Details and Resources
Small Business and Community Economic Development
Clinic, George Washington University Law School
o Grading Method
This clinic is graded on an H, P, LP, or NC basic
o Weekly Seminar
o Wednesday, 1:40-3:40pm (2 hours)
o Other Course Requirements
o Students of the Week (SOW)-intake new clients
o Weekly case supervision meetings
o Maintain weekly time sheets
o Case team meetings
o Learning goals
o Small Business Education
o Examples
o
o
o
The New DC Nonprofit Code, DC Bar Pro Bono Program
Enterprise Community Partners Faith Based Community Initiative
Details and Resources
Community Enterprise Clinic of Columbia Law School
Professor: Barbara A. Schatz
Two semesters
Credits: 7 credits in fall, 4-6 credits in spring (student option)
Enrollment: 8 students
Class meeting time: Tuesday 4:20 to 6:10 PM and Thursday 3:00 to 5:50 PM
Grading: Students may choose to be graded CR/F or with a letter grade.
Goals: The goal of this clinic is to help students to become effective and ethical lawyers by providing high quality transactional
representation to non-profits, microenterprises and social enterprises. An additional aspect of the Clinic involves helping students
to achieve personal goals related to becoming professionals, e.g., improving time-management; learning to collaborate with a
partner; improving ability to work with people of different age, sex, race or economic status; learning how to enjoy working as a
lawyer.
Cases and Projects
Non-profits - community groups, international organizations and arts organizations, both start-ups and mature organizations.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Typical projects
helping the client to choose and create an appropriate entity
developing a governance structure and drafting by-laws, conflict of interest and other corporate policies
applying for tax exemptions
helping an organization create a corporate and tax structure for a business activity
helping a local organization to create a national structure
reviewing and drafting leases and contracts
creating structures through which charities can participate in the political process
advising on trademark and copyright issues
Details and Resources
Community Enterprise Clinic of Columbia Law School
Microenterprises – serve low income communities and are unable to afford market rates for legal services
Social Enterprises – organizations interested in both generating income and achieving a social or environmental goal
o
o
o
o
Typical projects for microenterprises and social enterprises:
helping entrepreneurs to choose and form appropriate business structures
drafting or reviewing contracts, leases, financing documents
advising on trademark and copyright issues
complying with regulatory requirements
Community Education and Policy Work: Students offer workshops and prepare publications for non-profits and
community entrepreneurs on corporate, tax and regulatory issues. They also participate in law reform projects related to our
clients.
Pedagogy: The early weeks in the clinic are designed to prepare students to see clients. Classes, out-of-class exercises, readings,
videotaped simulations and individual meetings with the professor are used to build students’ substantive knowledge, skills,
judgment and sensitivity to ethical issues. Once casework begins, simulations taper off and the actual cases become the subject of
weekly supervision meetings and some classes. Throughout the semester, we focus on the lawyer’s role, especially the unique issues
in representing organizations rather than individuals, and on helping students to develop a workable personal conception of that
role.
Expectations: Students should plan on spending at least 21 hours per week on Clinic work and can expect to come out of the
Clinic with a good grounding in the corporate and tax law relevant to our clients; a sense of how the law functions in practice; basic
skills in communicating with clients, facilitating the work of a group enterprise, problem-solving and drafting; sensitivity to ethical
issues; good work habits involving careful planning and the ability to reflect on and learn from experience; and an understanding of
how lawyers can use their skills to benefit communities.
Details and Resources
Northumbria University, UK
Students at the Student Law Office are divided into “law firms” which assist
businesses, charities and social enterprises regardless of their size or
financial means.
o Typical projects:
o registering a trademark
o drafting website terms and conditions
o drafting company registration documents and advising on directors’
duties
o drafting and advising on a music video production contract
o Students offer free workshops to the public and to entrepreneurs’ groups.
o Contact:
o
Elaine Campbell
Senior Lecturer
+44 191 243 7548
elaine.campbell@northumbria.ac.uk
Details and Resources
Queen Mary University of London
Legal Advice Centre
o qLegal, starting in 2014, will offer free legal advice (not
representation) on a broad range of business, commercial and
intellectual property issues to non-profit social enterprises and
for-profit companies which meet income guidelines.
o The Law for the Arts Centre offers free legal advice monthly to
those involved in the creative industries.
o qLegal Contact:
Patrick Cahill
www.qmul.ac.uk/qLegal
020 7882 3977
p.cahill@qmul.ac.uk
www.qmul.ac.uk/qLegal
Details and Resources
University of South Wales, Pontypridd, UK
o The recently established Legal and Financial Advice
Clinic advises small businesses and social enterprises
o Enterprises are not eligible for free legal advice
through government programs – goal of the Advice
Clinic is to fill this gap, especially for the many
individuals who have no livelihood alternative other
than starting a business.
o Contact
Richard Owen
Director Legal and Financial Advice Clinic
Faculty of Business and Society
University of South Wales
Tel: 01443 654639
Fax: 01443 483008
e-mail: richard.owen@southwales.ac.uk
Details and Resources
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek
Croatia
o Law faculty and Economics faculty planning a clinic to
assist start-up entrepreneurs.
o Working in teams, law students will provide advice and
documents necessary to start a company, and
economics students will provide industry analyses.
o Contact:
Anamarija Delic, PhD
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Economics in Osijek
Tel: +385 31 224 426
Fax: +385 31 224 438
Details and Resources
o Law School Entrepreneurship Clinics
Kauffman Foundation
http://www.entrepreneurship.org/entrepreneurshiplaw/
o Bigger Than You Think: The Economic Impact of
Microenterprise in the United States available at
www.aeoworks.org
Details and Resources
Selected Books & Law Review Articles by Professor Susan R. Jones
BOOKS
Building Healthy Communities: A Guide to Community Economic Development for Advocates, Lawyers and Policymakers, Chicago, IL: American Bar
Association, 2009. (with Roger A. Clay, Jr.)
Legal Guide to Microenterprise Development. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, Section of Business Law, 2004.
ARTICLES
Enriching the Law School Curriculum: The Rise of Transactional Legal Clinics in U.S. Law Schools (with Prof. Jacqueline Lainez), forthcoming,
Washington U. J. L & Policy ____(2013).
Innovative Approaches to Public Service through Institutionalized Action Research: Reflections from Law and Social Work, 33 U. Arkansas L R 377
(2011) (with Dr. Shirley J. Jones).
Supporting Urban Entrepreneurs: Perspectives on Small Business Development - Law, Policy & the Role of Lawyers, 30 Western New England L.R. 71
(2008).
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy: An Economic Justice Imperative - Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Speech, 2004-2005, Seventh Annual
Public Interest Law Speakers Series, Access to Justice and the Social Responsibility of Lawyers, Washington University, St.Louis, MO, Jan. 19, 2005, 19
Washington U. J. L & Policy 39 (2005).
Promoting Social and Economic Justice Through Interdisciplinary Work in Transactional Law, 14 Washington U. J. L & Policy 249 (2004).
Pro Bono Pays Off: Transactional Lawyers Supporting Economic Development in the Nation's Capitol, 17 GP Solo & Small Firm Lawyer 38 (March 2000).
Representing the Poor and Homeless: Innovations in Advocacy: Tackling Homelessness through Economic Self-Sufficiency, 19 St. Louis University Public
Law Review 385-412 (2000).
Small Business and Community Economic Development: Transactional Lawyering for Social Change and Economic Justice, 4Clinical Law Review 195234 (1997).
Details and Resources
Selected publications by Professor Barbara Schatz
Starting Off Right, Columbia Law School 2012
Small Business Start-Ups , Columbia Law School 2012
Community Lawyering (with Anna Cody) in The Global Clinical
Movement, Frank S. Bloch, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Getting Organized (with A. Bromberger and R. Hobisch),
Lawyers Alliance for New York, 1999