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SKILL SHARPENER
Clients and students alike find benefits from George Washington Law School Clinic [by Erica Winter] It is not unusual to hear that law students working in a law school clinic are aiding those in need, such as juvenile prisoners. It is rare, however, to hear that this assistance is coming from a small business clinic and that the aid is not legal, but literature.
Students working at The George Washington
writing skills. To accommodate the different
first board meeting, and Swanson has been
University Law School Small Business Clinic
reading levels of the boys in the group, the
working on nonprofit tax status for the group.
are doing just this in their work to help Kelli
club alternates between books for lower and
Taylor and her business partner establish
higher reading levels.
There are “big differences” between for-prof-
DC, as a nonprofit organization. The group
This small group of juvenile prisoners is
For example, the language in the instrument
has launched a literacy program in the DC
segregated from the general population,
that creates the entity allows for-profit busi-
jail and needs legal help—which is where the
with each juvenile boy transferred into the
nesses to “make widgets,” says Swanson, but
clinic comes in.
general population when he turns 18. Ironi-
also to become an entity “for any other lawful
cally, because they are separated from other
purpose.” So a widget-maker could also sell
Setting up a nonprofit organization is very
prisoners, they have less access to services
ice cream or lobby Congress. A nonprofit may
complicated. To establish nonprofit status for
provided to the others, says Taylor. Also, they
not lobby Congress. The document that cre-
the Free Minds Book Club, its founders came
have a few hours of school each day, but no
ates a nonprofit entity restricts the group’s
to the George Washington clinic for assis-
access to a library.
activities to the narrow scope of a specific
the Free Minds Book Club in Washington,
it and nonprofit organizations, says Swanson.
tance. Third-year law students Joe Swanson
charitable purpose alone.
and Tonya Summerville have been working
The group’s goal is to “get them excited
with Kelli Taylor this semester. The small
about education again,” says Taylor, noting
Summerville, who has also worked in
business clinic has eight students work-
that some of the boys had not been in trouble
George Washington Law School’s consumer
ing there per semester, with a limit of one
before now. “A lot of these kids never read
mediation clinic, chose the small business
semester per student.
a book cover to cover before,” says Taylor.
clinic this semester to learn more “practi-
When the group reads a more advanced-level
cal aspects of practicing law,” she says. She
Swanson, who is focusing on tax law at
book, the boys with lower reading abilities
would like to work with small businesses in
George Washington, was surprised about the
are encouraged to try to read part of it and to
her future legal career.
legal issues and the processes needed for
participate in the discussion.
setting up a nonprofit, he says. Summerville,
Summerville has enjoyed working with Taylor
too, had not realized how much work it took
Taylor was a journalist covering the justice
on the Free Minds project. “It’s a really good
for an organization to become a nonprofit.
system when she got the idea for the group,
program,” says Summerville, who is helping
Both students, and the six others working at
which started up in late 2002. She wanted
to make sure the group’s first board meeting
the clinic this semester, work with nonprofits
to establish the group as a nonprofit and
covers all necessary bases. A nonprofit’s
and small businesses, either new or estab-
was referred to the George Washington Law
first board meeting, she explains, must cover
lished, on their legal needs.
School clinic last fall.
certain procedural things to make it official,
The Free Minds Book Club works with 16-
The student that worked with Taylor last
the roles of the board members will be, and
and 17-year-old prisoners in the DC jail who
semester helped her to put together the
adopting bylaws.
were charged and convicted as adults. The
incorporation paperwork for the nonprofit.
“club” operates like a regular book club and
“I would still have been laboring over those
Swanson chose to work in the small business
as a writing workshop. The group reads a
forms if I hadn’t had their help,” says Taylor.
clinic for some transactional experience and
book together every two weeks and discusses
This semester, Summerville has been focus-
also to help out small business owners and
it, says Taylor. It also works on the prisoners’
ing on setting up the Free Minds Book Club’s
nonprofits. While working in the clinic, he
such as agreeing on what bank to use, what
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SKILL SHARPENER
says, Professor Jones has taught him not only to spot issues of interest to the client but to communicate well with the client and help to steer him or her towards the best option for the enterprise. “You can always research the law,� he says, but if you cannot explain those issues to a client, then you are not helping him or her.
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