The Business Community Legal Advice Workshop aims to address the legal needs of diverse, underserved small business owners, especially those based in California’s Central Valley. Through Office Hours and other offerings, BCLAW strives to educate and assist small business owners with multiple facets of business law, from intellectual property to employment and commercial contracting.
BCLAW will train students interested in transactional law to do high-quality client advising. After intensive training sessions where students learn legal fundamentals, students will address small business owners’ needs during weekly Office Hours. At these Office Hours, students will take the lead in asking and answering legal questions under the close guidance of an experienced supervising attorney. In the spring, students may continue to develop their transactional law expertise by teaching workshops to entrepreneurs on select areas of business law.
Supervision: Students engaged in BCLAW will be supervised by attorneys at the New Business Community Law Clinic.
Time Commitment:
- Estimated number of hours per semester: 20-30 hours (including training)
- Estimated number of hours per week: 2-3 hours
- Office hours will be scheduled depending on the availability of the law student members, supervising attorneys, and clients.
- Trainings
- Primary initial training
- Friday half day (12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
- Saturday half day (9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.)
- Secondary training
- 3 or 4 one-hour-long sessions throughout the semester
- Primary initial training
For more information, please contact the student leaders at businesslegaladvisingworkshop@berkeley.edu.