Below is the full story that ran in the Providence Business News describing RICLAPP’s Small Business Development Program.
Nonprofit Trimming Legal Expenses for Businesses
By Richard Asinof
Contributing Writer
Contributing Writer
Geoff Schoos, an attorney who serves as president of the Rhode Island Center for Law and Public Policy, is trying to build a better mousetrap when it comes to providing low-cost, civil legal services, with a focus on small-business owners and startups.
“We provide legal services on a sliding scale, and cater to small, upstart entrepreneurs,” Schoos said, helping with such things as filings with the state, writing of bylaws, and articles of incorporation.
“We also sell ‘memberships’ in our agency for $20 an hour,” Schoos said, through which a $100 membership would provide up to 5 hours of legal help.
The center’s mission is to provide access to civil legal services to low-income Rhode Islanders, small nonprofit agencies and for-profit small businesses. “The whole impetus of this agency is to answer the question: How do people of modest means access legal services at a rate that they can afford?” Schoos said.
“We do intake for general legal needs, and depending on income, we offer services on a sliding scale,” he said, including what he termed “low-bono and pro bono” services.
Schoos’ two-year-old nonprofit organization, in collaboration with Webster Bank, the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and Slocum Insurance, last week hosted its third free, evening seminar to connect with small businesses.
The collaboration with Webster Bank came about because of a conversation Warwick Avenue branch manager Cynthia Bianchini had with Kara Abrams, a fund-development consultant on staff with the center. As a result, Bianchini said, the first two “taking care of business” seminars were held in her office at Webster Bank, with about five or six participants.
Two of the people who attended the November session were a mother-and-daughter team, Peggy Porter and her daughter, Melissa Finnigan, who needed help in setting up the Rhode Island chapter of Dressed for Success, a nonprofit agency that helps “promote economic independence for disadvantaged women by providing them with professional attire and a network of support,” according to Porter.
With Bianchini’s assistance, they opened a nonprofit business checking account, and with the center’s aid, they were able to incorporate as a nonprofit business. Dressed for Success Rhode Island also has a showcase table in the bank’s lobby and planned to hold a fundraiser last week.
“The seminars are a referral service for all of us,” Bianchini said. “It’s all about customer service. We’re here for that small-business person. We’re going to do everything we can to help make them a success.”
Porter and Finnigan, in turn, praised the help they received from both Webster Bank and the center. “It’s been invaluable,” said Porter, who hopes to officially open her new nonprofit’s office in Providence this week.
Dressed for Success is a worldwide organization, with 104 affiliates, of which the Providence chapter is number 99, Porter explained. “My background is an administrative assistant and case manager; my daughter is a professional personal-image consultant,” she said.
The economic downturn has certainly played a role in the increasing demand for civil legal services, according to Frederick D. Massie, communications director for the Rhode Island Bar Association. Civil matters related to foreclosures, and people losing their jobs, are among the reasons for the increased need, he said.
The bar association, Massie said, with more than 6,000 members, does offer Rhode Islanders a lawyer-referral service, as well as volunteer lawyers program, based upon federal income guidelines. Civil legal services are also provided to low-income individuals and families through Rhode Island Legal Services, he said. Also, the bar association offers legal assistance through its elderly program and its volunteer military legal assistance program, as well as staging free legal clinics throughout the state.
But Schoos and his nonprofit agency still see a need in offering low-cost, civil legal services.
Schoos said he served about 200 clients in the last six months of 2009 and expects to serve “upwards of 500 clients” in 2010.