Volunteers

legal assistance for entrepreneurs in Iowa

Join our network of volunteer attorneys! LegalCORPS connects attorneys who practice business and intellectual property law with opportunities to provide pro bono assistance in the areas of law they are most familiar with. Rule 6.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct emphasizes every attorney’s responsibility to serve those in the community who cannot afford access to the legal system. Expanding access to the legal system in business law via pro bono assistance is as much a social justice matter as other areas of legal need.

In addition to providing pro bono assistance to low-income small business owners, entrepreneurs, inventors and nonprofit organizations, LegalCORPS offers regular no cost educational opportunities to the public on the necessity and value of sound legal guidance to the success of any venture. An inability to pay for legal assistance leaves fledgling ventures at legal risk, potentially furthering the inequalities often faced by marginalized communities.

LegalCORPS coordinates business law pro bono opportunities in three primary forms:

Brief Advice Clinic Assistance

LegalCORPS conducts regularly scheduled free brief advice business law clinics, where participants can receive guidance or the opportunity to ask questions on their business law issues. Volunteer attorneys commit only to counseling clients in 30-minute sessions at clinic times that fit their schedules.

Limited Scope Representation Assistance

For clients who qualify, LegalCORPS recruits attorneys to provide pro bono assistance in business law matters. We do not assist with matters in litigation. The attorney client relationship and quality of representation is the same as it would be in a fee-based arrangement.

Public Presentations

Volunteer attorneys often deliver LegalCORPS sponsored presentations on business and intellectual property law topics. We recruit attorneys from our volunteer roster to deliver these presentations and they are typically offered in collaboration with our community partner organizations.

Support for Volunteers

LegalCORPS works to support and meet the needs of the volunteers who directly deliver the free services that LegalCORPS provides to low-income owners of small businesses, low-income entrepreneurs and small nonprofits.

Professional Liability Insurance

LegalCORPS maintains an insurance policy that provides professional liability coverage for attorneys when they provide pro bono legal assistance via LegalCORPS.

Continuing Legal Education and Training

By providing its own sessions, co-sponsoring seminars with other organizations or offering free or reduced-cost access to others’ programs, LegalCORPS works to help its volunteers prepare for high-quality service to their pro bono clients.

Support During Pro Bono Service

LegalCORPS can serve as an intermediary to enhance communication and understanding between attorneys and clients when needed. LegalCORPS also can recruit experienced business lawyers to confer with less-experienced volunteers as they assist pro bono clients through LegalCORPS.

Assistance from Law Student Volunteers

Working with the Minnesota Justice Foundation, LegalCORPS often arranges for law students to assist volunteer attorneys in their pro bono work for LegalCORPS clients.

Pro Bono Service Recordkeeping

Our database includes the hours of pro bono service to LegalCORPS clients that our volunteers report, and we can provide those figures (both individual and aggregate) when volunteers need them.

NOTE: Lawyers licensed in Minnesota can claim one hour of standard Continuing Legal Education credit for every six hours of pro legal assistance they provide to clients referred by an approved legal services provider. Minnesota lawyers can claim up to six hours of CLE credit for pro-bono work in each three-year reporting period. LegalCORPS is an approved legal services provider in Minnesota.

Hear from our Volunteers

The LegalCORPS staff make volunteering very easy, providing clear direction and responsive support both before the clinic and with any necessary follow-up. The time commitment is discrete and limited, with lots of flexibility as to frequency and whether to take on full representations. For transactional attorneys looking for a pro bono opportunity that suits their skills, I highly recommend LegalCORPS.

Not only have I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I have learned and grown through my work with Legal Corps; Legal Corps has provided me with the opportunity to work with organizations and individuals that I may not have otherwise had the privilege of helping to resolve issues and achieve goals.

Volunteering provides a low-risk opportunity to venture into new terrain (which can be energizing!), but there is no pressure to provide advice, or take on a project, in an area outside your comfort zone.  The clinic participants have been, without exception, wonderful people who value the advice we provide.

My work with Legal Corp has been personally rewarding and has helped me to offer what I believe our profession calls us to do – to help others when, absent legal professionals providing pro bono assistance, legal help would likely not otherwise be possible.

How to Volunteer

To join the LegalCORPS volunteer roster, first complete and submit the Volunteer Form.

LegalCORPS will confirm that you are properly licensed to provide legal assistance in Minnesota.

Retired attorneys are able to continue their volunteer service through “Emeritus Status” in Minnesota. This status allows lawyers to continue providing pro bono legal representation to clients when the client has been referred to the lawyer by an approved legal services provider, such as LegalCORPS. We encourage retiring attorneys to continue service with LegalCORPS and other legal service providers in retirement. We need your years of service and expertise! Click here for more information.

Once added to the roster and the contact list, you will receive email notices about clients who need assistance.  You also will receive periodic messages regarding other volunteer openings, continuing legal education and public speaking opportunities.

If a client’s matter interests you, respond by email (or phone) as soon as you can. While aiming to involve a broad range of individual volunteers, the LegalCORPS staff tries to arrange assistance as timely as possible for clients.

Sometimes LegalCORPS cannot quickly recruit a volunteer attorney for an eligible client from responses to e-mail notices sent to all on the roster. In those circumstances, LegalCORPS will recruit proactively among registered volunteers who have indicated they have experience or knowledge in the areas of business law pertinent to the client’s needs.

Volunteer schedules for regular LegalCORPS brief advice clinics usually are filled. When openings develop, LegalCORPS will notify volunteers on its roster and contact list many months in advance.

If you would like to suggest a pro bono opportunity for yourself or other LegalCORPS volunteers, or if you would like to explore volunteer projects that do not involve individual client representation, please contact Small Business and Nonprofit Programs Manager Sarah Lewis at slewis@legalcorps.org

Frequently Asked Questions

Attorneys volunteering with LegalCORPS are covered by its professional liability insurance policy.

LegalCORPS carefully screens clients through its application process to determine all potential parties to a legal matter and provides a potential volunteer with this information in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Once LegalCORPS has matched an attorney and client the organization’s involvement ends, aside from periodic check-ins to collect case closing forms or determine the progress of a long-term representation. The representation relationship is between the client and the attorney in respect of the requirement of attorney-client confidentiality. When needed, LegalCORPS can serve as an intermediary to enhance communication between attorney and client.

LegalCORPS strives to maintain a positive and open relationship with the attorneys and firms working in its community. If a client indicates a prior attorney relationship on the same or similar legal issue, LegalCORPS will contact the attorney (with the client’s permission) to determine whether LegalCORPS assistance is suitable.

The LegalCORPS mission does not include representation in cases requiring litigation.   LegalCORPS makes this clear to prospective clients. Often, the client seeks assistance to avert litigation.  Litigation can commence regardless of that assistance, of course. LegalCORPS does not expect its volunteers to engage in the litigation portion of representation and will not bind its volunteers to such representation.

Volunteers are free to represent the client if litigation ensues, but the representation will not be under the umbrella of LegalCORPS. Referrals will be provided to other resources as necessary.

Yes! Minnesota attorneys are able to register for “Emeritus Status” to continue providing pro bono legal representation to pro bono clients when the client has been referred to the lawyer by an approved legal services provider, such as LegalCORPS. Click for more information.

LegalCORPS determines a client’s eligibility each time it/he/she applies for assistance. LegalCORPS matches an attorney with the client for a discrete legal issue. For each such match, the attorney and client are expected to enter a new representation agreement.

LegalCORPS understands that attorney-client relationships are often built over time and after one or more successful representations an attorney and client may want to continue to work together. This can happen through LegalCORPS as long as the client remains eligible for LegalCORPS services. When a client is no longer eligible for LegalCORPS services, the attorney and client are free to continue their relationship through whatever means they agree upon, without the involvement of LegalCORPS.

Please complete the LegalCORPS Case Closing Form and return it to LegalCORPS. It is essential for LegalCORPS to collect this data to accurately report metrics to the government, funders, the public and other stakeholders. Please also send signed copies of the Client Engagement Agreement and End of Representation letter.