ALUMNIHIGHLIGHTS
Incubating Legal Practices for Justice: The Durham Opportunity and Justice Incubator BY MARK ATKINSON 20’
Attorneys graduating from NCCU’s School of Law are often faced with two choices: work at an established law firm or go into public interest. Those are good, legitimate options but some legal Eagles either want to create their own legal practice out of an entrepreneurial instinct or they have to create their legal practice out of necessity. The Durham Opportunity and Justice Incubator (DOJI), launched in October 2020 by Mark Atkinson1 (‘20), exists to provide a viable alternative career option for attorneys who are justice-minded and need support in creating a financially sustainable legal practice. DOJI equips entrepreneurial attorneys with practical business and legal skills to create legal practices that directly address the access to justice gap. For the newly licensed attorney, DOJI acts as a supportive bridge from the safe confines of law school to serving clients in local courthouses and offices. On that supportive bridge, a new attorney learns the business and legal skills to crawl, walk and then run with his new practice. For the experienced attorney who has worked at a firm and is ready to start her own practice, DOJI is a runway to launch her new firm. To be clear, DOJI is not a law firm. DOJI is an incubator – a supportive environment – for participating attorneys to build their 58
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own justice-minded independent legal practices. To accomplish DOJI’s mission, participating attorneys must be justiceminded, financially savvy, and innovative. Justice-minded attorneys understand the need to improve access to justice and, accordingly, create practices that serve modest means clients. Modest means clients often go without adequate legal representation. These individuals or families make too much money to qualify for legal aid but not enough to hire a traditional law firm. At DOJI, modest means clients are those whose household income is between 125% and 400% of the federal poverty limit. This is a family of four with a household income of roughly $32,000 to $105,000. DOJI attorneys are not prevented from serving higher-income clients. However, if a DOJI-associated attorney focuses exclusively on high-income clients, then she no longer conforms to DOJI’s mission. Conversely, DOJI attorneys are encouraged to fill gaps in service to clients when Legal Aid is understaffed or unable to fill by going beyond the standard professional expectations of pro bono service. DOJI attorneys must be financially savvy to create financially sustainable legal practices. A DOJI attorney serving modest means clients must be able to make a living. In law school, a student is taught The Law, but is rarely taught how to run a business. The twelve-month DOJI program includes training sessions on business topics such as entity formation, growing a client base through marketing and legal referral services, website design, client intake, budgeting, taxes, and pricing of services. One helpful session is a panel discussion with established solo
