The following is an excerpted list of law student-involved projects that I’ve directed, mostly during my time leading the Community Enterprise Project at Harvard Law School. While most of these projects involved written work product and live presentations, the ultimate intent of each of these projects was to look to communities of people to identify their own needs - specifically needs that pertain to persistent legal barriers to economic development - and then coalesce legal and legal-adjacent resources around those communities in ways that maximize collective impact. Through this work, we regularly learned that it was the functioning network itself (rather than the final product) that generated the broadest and most enduring impact. This proactive and collaborative model of legal practice that my students and I implemented through the Community Enterprise Project fundamentally shaped the way I approach the practice of law.

C3 Legal

A team of University of Louisville law students worked on building out the core services of the C3 Legal model, including annotating a full set of Delaware C Corp formation documents, creating an intake questionnaire with decision trees based on preliminary information provided, and creating plain language terms of use for attorneys and entrepreneurs accessing the C3 Legal website capabilities.

Public Benefits and Microenterprise

A team of students worked on a cross-clinical collaboration with the Disability Litigation and Public Benefits clinic and other community partners to research and draft A Legal Overview of Engaging in Self-Employment While Receiving Public Assistance in Massachusetts as well as prepare and deliver workshops for public benefits recipients in Greater Boston who aim to launch or run existing microenterprises.

Spare Change News

A team of students partnered with the Homeless Empowerment Project, a grassroots organization that publishes Spare Change News, to provide information to Spare Change News vendors about the legal issues inherent in running a microenterprise, how to run their microenterprises without running afoul of their public benefits, how and where they can vend the papers in Cambridge and neighboring municipalities, and connect the vendors to other legal services providers to address any non-business-related legal issues they may face.

Ujima

A team of students worked with a group of community activists and leaders to identify, research, and strategize solutions to legal issues implicated by the group’s comprehensive, multi- faceted plan to seize local control of the economy of a defined geographic neighborhood, which included implementation of multi-layered cooperatives, a good business certification program, and localized investment platforms.

Worker Cooperatives

A team of students partnered with local organizations that support cooperative development to research and draft a resource for worker cooperatives and the lawyers and other technical assistance providers who work with them. The resulting publication, Tackling the Law, Together: A Legal Guide to Worker Cooperatives Generally and in Massachusetts, was utilized in a subsequent semester by a new team of three students who presented the material in a series of workshops for existing worker cooperatives in Greater Boston as well as those individuals interested in forming a worker cooperative. Each workshop was followed by one-on-one consultation appointments in which attendees could discuss their specific legal questions with clinical students accompanied by practicing attorneys.

Fairmount Innovation Lab

A team of three clinical students partnered with local organizations that support cooperative development to research and draft a resource for worker cooperatives and the lawyers and other technical assistance providers who work with them. The resulting publication, Tackling the Law, Together: A Legal Guide to Worker Cooperatives Generally and in Massachusetts, was utilized in a subsequent semester by a new team of three students who presented the material in a series of workshops for existing worker cooperatives in Greater Boston as well as those individuals interested in forming a worker cooperative. Each workshop was followed by one-on-one consultation appointments in which attendees could discuss their specific legal questions with clinical students accompanied by practicing attorneys.

Immigrant Entrepreneurs

A team of students worked with a local network of immigrant organizations as well as a broad network of national experts to draft a resource for Massachusetts immigrant entrepreneurs and the lawyers and other technical assistance providers who work with them, titled A Legal Guide to Business Ownership by Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts. The resource was later translated into Spanish and is now being used as a model for other state-specific resources across the country.

JOBS Act Crowdfunding

A team of students partnered with a community organization, Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition, to untangle the practical and legal hurdles that communities who aimed to facilitate localized equity investment in neighborhood businesses would face under the crowdfunding provisions of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.

Veteran Entrepreneurs Project

Teams of students worked in partnership with the Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law School to expand the reach of the cross- clinical initiative, known as the Veterans Enterprise Initiative, by networking with regional veterans organizations to coordinate existing technical assistance resources for veterans entrepreneurs. The students also prepared and delivered a series of interactive presentations on legal issues for veteran entrepreneurs for individuals enrolled in technology training courses offered by Tech Goes Home.

Condos

A team of students worked with the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development as well as a network of local affordable housing organizations to draft a resource for condominium owners, particularly those belonging to small condominium associations, titled Healthy Condominium Toolkit: Tips for Maintaining a Strong Condominium Association. Students also presented the information contained in the toolkit at a first-time homebuyers course sponsored by the City of Boston.

Main Streets

A team of students collaborated with the City of Boston’s Main Streets Program to develop and present a training session on particular issues of good governance to the executive directors of each of the city’s 22 individual Main Streets organizations, including conflicts of interest, political campaigning and lobbying, and liability and risk management.

Food Trucks

Teams of students worked in partnership with the Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic and in collaboration with the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives and a number of local organizations to research and draft a resource for food trucks and those organizations that work with them. This resource, Food Truck Legal Toolkit for the City of Boston, was updated in subsequent semesters and has been presented numerous times at the City of Boston’s Food Truck 101 training sessions.

Mass in Motion

Teams of worked in partnership with the Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School on the Massachusetts Joint Use Project, an initiative by the Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation together with the Harvard School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The students assisted with preparation of The Massachusetts Joint Use Toolkit: Helping Kids and Communities Be Healthy and Active, which serves as a how-to guide for community members seeking to access public buildings and spaces after hours so residents can exercise and engage in other recreational activities.