American Bar Association Initiatives:
- Standing Committee on Pro Bono & Public Service and the Center on Pro Bono
- Business Law Pro Bono Project (a collaboration between Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Section on Business Law, studying exploring pro bono initiatives in such subject areas as Community Economic Development, Bankruptcy, Microenterprise, Microfinance, Consumer Finance and Nonprofits)
- Business and Community Economic Development Law Pro Bono
- Standing Committee on Delivery of Legal Services—Information/Links on Hearings on the Delivery of Legal Services Through Technology
- Improving the Delivery of Affordable Legal Services Through the Internet: A Blueprint for the Shift to a Digital Paradigm
In addition to the American Bar Association, many other state and local bar associations and other groups seek to promote consumer access to affordable legal services is in the United States, including legal services for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The following are examples of such other resources.
Examples of Other Resources
- State and Local Bar Associations often have ongoing committees and projects studying pro bono and affordable legal services issues and practices
- Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area-Legal Services for Entrepreneurs Factsheet
- Illinois Legal Aid-Small Business
- Illinois Pro Bono-Economic Development
- New York City Bar Economic Justice-Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project
- Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship—Free Legal Clinics Program
Summary description: The Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University offers its students (Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship majors and minors) and practicing entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet with Nashville-based lawyers free of charge. The Center explains that:
“These lawyers generously donate their time to meet with students one-on-one, three times a semester during four 30-minute time slots. Students come to these meetings armed with tough questions ranging from intellectual property, contracts, mergers and acquisitions, to entertainment law and business formations. Students who participate in these Clinics avoid many of the legal pitfalls that entrepreneurs can inadvertently encounter and build their businesses on solid foundations.”