Narrowing the (Legal) Gap: Identifying Legal Technical Assistance Providers in America’s Largest Urban Centers

 

Introduction: The Importance of Small Businesses

American society often champions small businesses: During a 2010 meeting with local entrepreneurs in Seattle, President Barack Obama praised small businesses as “the backbone of [the American] economy and the cornerstones of [its] communities.” In more recent years, entrepreneurial thought leaders advocated for larger and better tailored stimulus packages for small businesses, while economics professors urgently advised Congress to offer refundable tax credits to help small business owners overcome the economic downturn spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. The widespread promotion of and support for small businesses makes sense. Data from the United States Small Business Administration illustrates the major impact small businesses have on the overall economy.

According to a 2018 report from the agency’s Office of Advocacy, small business entities create two-thirds of net new jobs. Beyond job creation, academic and government research has found that small companies better spark innovation (as measured by patents per employee). Moreover, census data reveals that entrepreneurship empowers marginalized demographic identities, such as women and people of color, by affording them opportunities “to achieve financial success and independence.” Yet, despite the well-documented and seemingly understood importance of small businesses for American innovation and economic competitiveness, their owners (and potential owners) continue to face many barriers. In a brand-new March 2022 report, “Closing the Gaps in Regional Small Business Technical Assistance Systems,” the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City captured many of the gaps faced by local entrepreneurs in receiving technical assistance, including 1) language and cultural barriers; 2) lack of access to capital; 3) inadequate industry-specific support; 4) inability to plan for large-scale disasters and economic shocks; and 5) insufficient support in navigating the landscape of technical assistance providers.

Understanding the (Legal) Gap: Methodology

            The University of Michigan Law School’s Community Enterprise Clinic aims to close some of the above-identified gaps by providing pro bono legal services to low or moderate-income small businesses (as well as nonprofits and community-based organizations) in metro Detroit and other disinvested urban areas across the Southeast Michigan region. However, not all communities are fortunate enough to have a student-advised and professor and attorney-supervised legal clinic nearby. Although the report did not focus on legal technical assistance, considering the final barrier identified by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City—insufficient support in navigating the technical assistance landscape—this blog post aims to begin the process of mapping out the free legal services providers available to women, BIPOC, and low-income entrepreneurs in some of the United States’ largest urban centers.

            To do so, this post focuses on the fifteen largest metropolitan areas (as calculated by 2019 population estimates). The United States Census Bureau defines a metropolitan area (“MA”) as “a core area containing a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that core.” This includes the following regions, organized by numbers of residents in descending order:

    1)    New York–Newark–Jersey City MA (19,216,182 residents);

2)    Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim MA (13,214,799 residents);

3)    Chicago–Naperville–Elgin MA (9,458,539 residents);

4)    Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington MA (7,573,136 residents);

5)    Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land MA (7,066,141 residents);

6)    Washington–Arlington–Alexandria MA (6,280,487 residents);

7)    Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach MA (6,166,488 residents);

8)    Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington MA (6,102,434 residents);

9)    Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta MA (6,020,364 residents);

10) Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler MA (4,948,203 residents);

11) Boston–Cambridge–Newton MA (4,873,019 residents);

12) San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley MA (4,731,803);

13) Riverside–San Bernadino–Ontario MA (4,650,631 residents);

14) Detroit–Warren–Dearborn MA (4,319,629 residents); and

15) Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue MA (3,979,845 residents).

Furthermore, this post categorizes legal technical assistance providers by four sources of financial support: 1) legal aid organizations funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC); 2) legal aid organizations funded by non-governmental organizations and private foundations, i.e., non-LSC funded providers; 3) local bar associations; and 4) law school clinics. As public interest or public interest-minded organizations, each of these types of providers likely offers their legal services for free (although some may charge a reduced rate). However, despite the common advantage of no or nominal fees, important differences exist between the categories.

For example, federal law prohibits LSC funded legal aid organizations from representing or providing services to undocumented immigrants (with limited exceptions). Beyond restrictions on immigration status, the government has also established strict income thresholds for LSC clients: only people who live in households with annual incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines can receive assistance. Moreover, Congress severely underfunds the LSC, which has resulted in a “justice gap” that leaves the twenty percent of Americans eligible for legal aid with “inadequate or no legal help in addressing eighty-six percent of the civil legal problems [they] face.” While such regulatory and budgetary hurdles do not encumber privately funded legal aid organizations, they are still beholden to the contractual restrictions placed upon them by foundations and donors. Furthermore, private funding is less guaranteed than annual congressional appropriations, and is often shaped by trends in what funders identify as “the most important” social causes and the perceived publicity and good-will created by more timely donations.

In regard to local bar associations, as modeled after the American Bar Association’s Free Legal Answers virtual clinic, such professional membership organizations often offer abridged pro bono services only meant to answer brief legal questions. Bar associations usually facilitate longer engagements via their referral service; thereby, substantive review of the contracts, filings, and other documents needed by small businesses often requires a discounted, yet still potentially unaffordable fee. Lastly, if regional law schools offer clinics that cater to the needs of neighborhood-based entrepreneurs, potential clients should be cognizant that their legal representation will be provided by student attorneys who may take longer on matters as they participate in a clinic’s educational experience. All of these pros and cons should be considered by small business owners when seeking pro bono (or subsidized) assistance from the legal technical assistance providers in their metropolitan areas.

Narrowing the (Legal) Gap: Identifying Legal Technical Assistance Providers in America’s Largest Urban Centers

With these geographic boundaries and organizational categories in mind, this blog post hopes to offer a preliminary resource to small businesses navigating the (legal) technical assistance landscape. Although this list currently only offers one example of each type of provider (if available), it hopefully helps narrow the gap by allowing potential small business clients to choose a local option that best fits their needs based on the advantages and drawbacks of each type.

Table 1. Examples of Legal Technical Assistance Providers by Metropolitan Area

MA	Legal Technical Assistance Providers
	LSC Funded	Non-LSC Funded	Local Bar Associations	Law School Clinics
New York–Newark–Jersey City	Legal Services NYC Community & Economic Development	Volunteers of Legal Service Microenterprise Project	City Bar Justice Center Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project	NYU Law Business Transactions Clinic
Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim	None Available	Public Counsel Small Business Legal Services	Los Angeles County Bar Association SmartLaw Flat Fee Formation and Trademark Registration	USC Law Small Business Clinic
Chicago–Naperville–Elgin	None Available	Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Legal Help for Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Social Enterprises	Elgin Area Chamber Small Business Academy	University of Chicago Law Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneur-ship
Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington	None Available	None Available	Dallas Bar Association LegalLine	Southern Methodist University Law Small Business and Trademark Clinic
Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land	None Available	Office of Business Opportunity Houston Small Business Legal Consultations	Houston Bar Association LegalLine	University of Houston Law Entrepreneur-ship and Community Development Clinic
Washington–Arlington–Alexandria	None Available	None Available	DC Bar Nonprofit and Small Business Legal Assistance	George Washington Law Small Business and Community Economic Development Clinic
Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach	Partnership with Florida Community Development Project	Florida Community Development Legal Project Small Business Legal Services	None Available	Florida International University Law Business Innovation and Technology Clinic
Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington	None Available	Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts	None Available	Penn Law Entrepreneur-ship Legal Clinic
Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta	None Available	None Available	None Available	University of Georgia Law Business Law Clinic
Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler	None Available	None Available	None Available	None Available
Boston–Cambridge–Newton	None Available	Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston BizGrow	Massachusetts Bar Association Dial-A-Lawyer	Harvard Law School Transactional Law Clinics
San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley	None Available	Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Legal Services for Entrepreneurs	Bar Association of San Francisco Business Law Center	Berkeley Law New Business Community Law Clinic
Riverside–San Bernadino–Ontario	Inland Counties Legal Services Small Business Legal Assistance	None Available	None Available	None Available
Detroit–Warren–Dearborn	None Available	Michigan Community Resources Small Business Support	State Bar of Michigan Pro Bono Patent Project	University of Michigan Law School Community Enterprise Clinic
Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue	None Available	Communities Rise Services for Small Businesses	King County Bar Neighborhood Legal Clinics	University of Washington Law Entrepreneur-ial Law Clinic

 

            For small business owners and entrepreneurs located in metro Detroit, also check out this previous blog post about local law firms and their small business-focused pro bono and philanthropic initiatives.

By: Lauren Ashley Week