Law Review - Providence Business News

COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE: Nonprofits that receive more than $50,000 in taxpayer funding will be required to inform state legislators how much they’re paying their top five employees who receive more than $100,000.  PBN FILE PHOTO/NICOLE DOTZENROD

New law requires many nonprofits to reveal salaries of top executives

Focus 10/10/2025

A 2023 audit by the inspector general at the U.S. Department of Justice found significant deficiencies in financial management by the Pawtucket nonprofit Blackstone...

FREE TO ASSIST: A mix of attorneys and law students staff the eviction help desk at District Court in the Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence. Such pro bono work has declined in some areas since January. In the photo are, from left, Brian Furgal of Rhode Island Legal Services; Roger Williams University law student Michael Dabramo; Suzanne Harrington-Steppen, clinical professor of law and associate director of pro bono programs at RWU Law; and law student Megan Graham.  COURTESY ELIZA VORENBERG

Lawyers try to adapt as pro bono needs rise

Focus 08/15/2025

As Trump administration policies target areas such as immigration, LGBTQ issues and voting rights, the demand for pro bono services among vulnerable organizations and...

MAKING IT WORK: R.I. Public Defender Collin Geiselman, left, and Matthew Toro, deputy public defender, discuss cases in their office in Providence. Now that higher pay rates have been approved, the public defender’s office is having a much easier time keeping and hiring staff.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

R.I. public defenders get helping hand, but still understaffed

Focus 05/23/2025

The workload has gotten easier for the attorneys in the R.I. Office of the Public Defender, but it’s still not case closed when it...

More eviction filings have these nonprofit legal services laboring

Focus 02/14/2025

Lawyer Steven S. Flores and his staff at the Housing Law Center at Rhode Island Legal Services Inc. are busy these days, and many...

WHAT’S IN STORE? A Sunshine Vape LLC location on Atwells Avenue in Providence. Owner Darin Tripoli says sales have declined 95% since Jan. 1, when a ban on flavored vape products went into effect in Rhode Island. PBN PHOTO/WILLIAM HAMILTON

Vape shops begin to fade with flavor ban in place

Focus 02/14/2025

Cinnamon fireball was among the many flavors at White Horse Vapor that Eugene DiSarro tried when he decided to stop smoking cigarettes for good...

R.I.’s new data privacy law will force some businesses to change...

Focus 10/11/2024

Lawmakers spent years crafting legislation to set data-transparency guidelines and improve customers’ online privacy. Now that it has passed the General Assembly, businesses should...

OFFICE ADVOCATE: R.I. Public Defender Collin Geiselman says he’s asking legislators to add $600,000 more in the R.I. Office of the Public Defender’s fiscal 2025 budget to raise the wages of staff attorneys as a recruitment and retention tool. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Understaffed public defenders struggling to cover cases

Focus 02/16/2024

R.I. Public Defender Collin Geiselman is accustomed to attorneys on his staff leaving to take higher-paying positions at private law firms, but now he’s...

MORE MONITORS? The city of Providence already has traffic cameras such as these at Chalkstone Avenue and Raymond Street keeping an eye out for motorists running red lights. Other cameras capture images of speeders. Now the Smiley administration wants the ability to enforce traffic noise automatically.  PBN FILE PHOTO

A sound idea? Providence considers noise cameras along roads

Focus 02/16/2024

If given the green light, Rhode Island’s most populous – and maybe the loudest – municipality will be the first in the state to...

GIVING CREDIT: Rhode Island College, along with the University of Rhode Island and the Community College of Rhode Island, is being required to establish ways of awarding academic credit for students who participate in registered apprenticeship programs. COURTESY RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE

New law: R.I. public colleges must plan for apprenticeships

Education 10/13/2023

A new state law requires public higher education institutions to establish ways of awarding academic credit to students who participate in registered apprenticeship programs. “These...