RWU clinic advising on economic development

LETTER OF THE LAW: Roger Williams University law students Zoe Zhang and  Steve Sokolov present a run-through of issues for small businesses in front of other students and professor Gowri J. Krishna. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
LETTER OF THE LAW: Roger Williams University law students Zoe Zhang and Steve Sokolov present a run-through of issues for small businesses in front of other students and professor Gowri J. Krishna. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Eager to incorporate his after-school program for Providence teens, STEAM Box, as a nonprofit, Roberto Gonzalez has discovered that getting legal advice through a university law clinic can be a good place to start.
Steve Sokolov, one of four students gaining practical experience in Roger Williams University’s new Community and Economic Development Law Clinic, has been helping tailor articles of incorporation for Gonzalez’s organization.
“Some of this is new for me,” said Gonzalez of East Providence, whose after-school programming at Alvarez High School focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math, the so-called “STEAM” subjects. “I’m a consultant, engaging youth and team building for teachers. These are my skill sets, and I feel like I’m a master. But starting a nonprofit, I don’t feel like a master. Working with these guys, they are my watchdogs.”
The work is a challenge, adds Sokolov, a third-year law student, who will graduate this spring.
“We’re picking apart his articles of incorporation and bylaws to make sure it fits with his needs and the criteria of the Internal Revenue Service and the statutes,” he said.
Researching options and then presenting the client with them is different than many people’s image of a lawyer directing a client and arguing on his or her behalf in a courtroom, say Sokolov and associate clinical professor of law Gowri J. Krishna, who runs the clinic.
Criminal defense and other types of educational law clinics have been around since the 1960s, but the community and economic-development model didn’t come into its own until the 1990s, Krishna said. Contrary to the prevailing perception, only about half of the country’s lawyers engage in litigation; the other half practices transactional law, advising clients in an office setting, she said.
“What we do is listen to them and draw out of them their intention,” Sokolov said of his work with Gonzalez and other clients. “That’s a big difference between what attorneys do in the courtroom.” STEAM Box has been getting attention from potential educational clients in other states, Gonzalez said, so the clinic is helping him craft appropriate bylaws. “They said, ‘Hey, this is very Rhode Island-specific, so we need to be broadening your horizons,’ and that’s been a tremendous help,” he said.
The paperwork might seem like an obstacle, added Zoe Zhang, 26, of Bristol, also a third-year law student, “but that’s what we signed up to do and we’re happy to help.”
Launched this fall, the Community and Economic Development Law Clinic is part of a roster that includes clinics in criminal defense, immigration and mediation. RWU Law School Dean David A. Logan says the purpose is two-fold.
“We wanted to do a couple things with this clinic,” he said: “bolster our offerings in business with a practical bent and add to the array of offerings to help students make the transition from the theory of law to the practice of law. It not only fills a gap in terms of the skill set, but helps us craft the guarantee of at least one semester-long, clinical educational experience before students graduate.”
This semester, four students are participating in the clinic for 15 hours a week, with one class held each week, and are earning four credits, Krishna said. Next semester, eight students will use the clinic 20 hours a week, with class twice a week, earning eight credits, she said.
Students are bound by the same ethics, confidentiality and professional rules of responsibility as professional lawyers, she added. Services are free to screened clients, which include nonprofits, small businesses and startups.
“We’re restricted to providing legal services to entities that cannot otherwise afford to pay,” Krishna said.
Besides STEAM Box, Urban Greens Food Co-op, a consumer-owned cooperative working to open a retail grocery store aimed at providing healthy food options for residents in Providence’s urban neighborhoods, is using the clinic’s services. Also in the mix are the Sol Chariots Pedicab Cooperative, which offers bike taxis, tours and deliveries in Providence, and Navigant Credit Union. Urban Greens is benefiting greatly from the counsel provided by the clinic’s students, said Delia Kovac, a project manager. The co-op is incorporated in Minnesota, Kovac said.
Making the nonprofit’s bylaws transparent and intelligible to members and exploring the ramifications of a member loan campaign are proving helpful, she said.
“What I really appreciate about Gowri and Steve is, they seem very open, flexible and curious, and they’re not scared of an open challenge. Because when you’re looking at a member loan campaign, it’s never been done before in Rhode Island. So they’re really trying to help figure out how to make that work.”
Providing this clinic with real-world experience not only makes students more marketable, said Logan, it is “consistent with the entire university’s commitment to be a positive force in economic development and development of our cities and towns.”
That’s a vision Krishna is attuned to as well. She assigned the book, “Owning Our Future,” by Marjorie Kelly, which explores the difference between economies that extract or generate resources.
“The idea is to have them think critically about what the current system is, how it is working, how is it failing, how can we support as lawyers these efforts. So, these higher-level conversations are happening, too,” she said.
Despite the challenge of working within those constraints, students work hard and in a focused, intentional way to come up with a work plan for the client. If they can’t finish it, they write a transition memo so the next legal adviser can pick up where they left off, Krishna said. •

No posts to display