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March 31, 2020

Law firms to provide pro bono services to help small businesses

IMAGE | Pixabay.com
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

Are you a small-business owner who could use some legal advice to make sure your enterprise survives the coronavirus outbreak? 

Money to hire a lawyer during these trying times may be scarce, but free help is available. 

The Lawyers for Good Government Foundation, a non-profit network of more than 125,000 legal advocates with lawyers in all 50 states, recently announced it is launching a Small Business Remote Legal Clinic.

Through it, small-business owners can get free consultations and learn about all options available to them under the recent $2 trillion federal stimulus package and other grant and loan programs. The stimulus package includes $350 billion earmarked for helping small businesses. Companies can obtain forgivable loans, as long as they meet certain requirements, such as maintaining payroll.

Traci Feit Love, executive director of the organization, said hundreds of thousands of small-business owners nationwide are in a situation now where they have questions about how they can ensure their companies’ survival.

“This small business legal clinic can help them navigate this unanticipated economic crisis, and provide them with guidance they desperately need at this time,” Love said in an announcement. “Their survival is essential to the strength of our economy and vital to our communities, and it is critical that we do whatever we can to help sustain these businesses and their employees until this crisis subsides.”

The remote legal clinics are open to companies with 25 or fewer employees. The program includes free 45-minute consultations with lawyers who can answer questions. 

More than 30 law firms from around the country, including several based in New York City, will help staff the remote legal clinics. Small-business owners can get guidance on available funding, assistance in filing for grants and loans, and answers to questions.

Jacqueline Haberfeld, pro bono counsel at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which has a New York City office, said small businesses are “suddenly struggling for their very survival.”

“It is the professional duty of the legal community to come together to offer advice and guidance to them so that they can continue to provide incomes for their employees, and goods and services to their communities," Haberfeld said in a press release.

A pilot program is launching soon in New York City in partnership with the City Bar Justice Center, and will expand across the country. 

For more information and to be notified as more clinics are scheduled, click HERE.

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.

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