Friday, March 9, 2012
Promoting Incubators for Solo and Small Practices:
Fred Rooney's Incubator for Justice program trains recent CUNY Law graduates for 18 months in the basics of running a solo or small practice law firm, assists them in tackling larger justice initiatives, and provides substantive training in different areas of the law, including immigration, labor and employment and other issues. Fred tours the country promoting his Incubator model to other law schools and hopes that more schools will start taking their obligations to provide continuing legal training to their alumni and to provide justice to their communities more seriously. The Incubator model costs almost nothing to the law schools and can really help new lawyers to do financially and emotionally sustaining work, yet Fred and others have noted that schools are somewhat reluctant to adopt Incubator programs. In order for this model to be adopted at more schools and for solo and practice low-bono work to be seen as a respectable and viable option for students leaving law school, it might be help for this group to do more to raise the profile of the Incubator and lobby more schools to adopt similar programs.
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Part of any incubator program should be help for students who wish to start their own 501(c)(3) organizations. There are plenty of pitfalls to encounter when incorporating and applying for tax-exempt status, yet a few pointers can make the process smoother for a large majority of applicants. Another key component of support might be a centralized grant database, pulling together funding opportunities which new organizations can apply for, with the ability to quickly narrow down the list by eligibility requirements and deadlines. Grant writing workshops would also be a big help.
ReplyDeleteThis is Edgar from UCI Law. As part of our recent call, I spoke a bit about a project I've started with colleagues at UCI, Justice through Legal Entrepreneurship and Access Partnerships (JustLEAP), which is our effort to create a national/digital incubator network for recent graduates who want to start their own firm or non-profit. We are working to get this project off the ground in the next month. If anyone is interested in working with us, please email me directly: edgar.aguilasocho@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteCurious if anyone has spoken to anyone at their schools about this? Again, like the pressuring firms idea, I had mentioned this to this PI admin person at Columbia, who had said she had talked to Fred Rooney about it, but the thought within the administration here was that there just wasn't much student interest (or need) in it. I suppose if we could demonstrate student interest, they might see it as a more promising idea. Any other thoughts about this?
ReplyDeleteI have spoken to my school's PI admin person. Fred Rooney is coming to talk to our career center staff in a little over a week, and we're trying to get him to stick around to talk to students during the lunch break.
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