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Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship—Significant Achievements for 2023-24

The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship (IJ Clinic) continued to be a lifeline for small businesses in Chicago in 2023-24 through our meaningful representation of low-income entrepreneurs, advocacy for economic liberty, and outreach to small businesses throughout the city. Particularly in the South and West sides of Chicago, entrepreneurs and small business owners struggle to navigate the changing economic and regulatory landscape. IJ Clinic students and attorneys were able to provide invaluable guidance to clients and lawmakers so that the small businesses that are key to our economic future can survive and even flourish.

IJ Clinic Clients - Underserved Chicago Entrepreneurs

The IJ Clinic is delighted to work with Chicago entrepreneurs looking to transform their companies and communities. In our role as outside general counsel for a select group of client businesses founded by low-income entrepreneurs, we forge long-term relationships and are uniquely situated to gain insights into the business objectives and operations of clients.

In 2023 we bid farewell to a few clients who graduated, and in 2024 welcomed three new clients with student participation in reviewing prospective client applications, interviewing candidates, selecting and onboarding them as clients.

Our clients feature businesses across various industries and neighborhoods.

  • a co-op grocery store in the formation stage aiming to provide a comprehensive, sustainable, community-based solution addressing food insecurity in an area designated as a food desert by the USDA on Chicago’s South Side
  • a maker of wine and mead using locally produced ingredients in a converted former industrial building near a forest preserve and bike path on the Far South Side of Chicago with a tasting room, patio, and production facility
  • a multi-cultural haircare vending business focused on connecting consumers with unique products in places where they otherwise are challenged to find what they need for their personal self-care
  • a marketplace of local entrepreneurs with innovative businesses operating and selling from repurposed shipping containers
  • a designer sneaker and handbag company founded by a man who learned his craft in a prison workshop and determined to build a company around his talents when he came home
  • an urban agriculture business educating students from grade school to high school and the public about growing food in the city with regenerative farming practices
  • a solopreneur who manufactures and sells products made from hemp
  • a business offering tax preparation services, bookkeeping, business consulting, and insurance sales services
  • a vegan Mexican restaurant with unique foods that aims to grow through manufacturing its products
  • a Vinyl record store with plans to evolve to offer on-site music experiences with innovative interactive technology and plans to develop neighboring vacant properties to better their neighborhood

IJ Clinic Transactional Projects

The IJ Clinic advises on a wide array of contracts and issues ranging from entity structures, finance, real estate, employment, IP strategy and protection, and customer and vendor facing contracts.

Students benefit from frequent client interactions, leading meetings, scoping out projects and delivering results. In addition to researching legal issues, students develop communication skills including how to deliver creative solutions and sometimes unwelcome news.

By providing free legal services to our clients, we help them transform their companies and communities. Details of our engagement with and representation of our clients are confidential, of course. But here is a sampling of some of the major projects students worked on for clients in the past year:

  • Advised on international manufacturing arrangements and drafted contracts with offshore producer.
  • Reviewed complex rules for complying with various grants including the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund and Chicago Recovery Grant to support clients in successfully complying with grant terms and receiving critical grant funds.
  • Guided a restaurant business through exploring different leases for a new location, negotiated the LOI and lease, and advised on options for arranging funds through traditional lenders to fund the expansion.
  • Counseled clients on entity formation and restructuring taking into account tax and estate and gift tax implications.
  • Researched and provided guidance on the three tier liquor license rules for a restaurant business.
  • Applied for and successfully obtained key trademarks for clients, overcoming questions raised by the USPTO about potentially conflicting marks.
  • Created master forms of contracts for clients for customers and vendors.
  • For multiple start-up clients, reviewed organizational documents and counseled on entity governance compliance, board duties, and elections.
  • Recommended best practices on employment and independent contractor arrangements.
  • Researched and advised on compliance with various federal regulations including FDA and FTC guidance for product marketing.
  • Counseled a client on the decision to terminate a major contract and negotiated a favorable termination.
  • Advised a client on compliance with Chicago regulations for retail businesses.
  • Analyzed strategy for trademark protection, in view of competitors’ similar marks.
  • Drafted an extensive application for the Zoning Board of Appeals, in light of precedent.
  • Researched how state cooperative laws, federal and state securities laws, and federal tax laws interact in order to draft a cooperative’s bylaws and policies.

IJ Clinic Client Testimonial

As one of our clients expressed to our student team as they prepared to graduate, ”Before you go ... your impact on our business plans went beyond our expectations. You gave us the power to add new options for important decisions and more confidence once our choices were made. [Our business] quickly became able to move faster with more complex transactions. Great students ask good questions. And we got a lot of the right questions when we needed them to catch our attention.”

IJ Clinic Regulatory and Policy Projects

The IJ Clinic acts as a watchdog, advocating for legislative reform to knock down excessive regulatory and legal barriers that keep entrepreneurs from making their dreams a reality.

  • In the academic year 2023-24, students researched, analyzed, strategized, and advocated for policy reforms at both the state and city levels. IJ Clinic students carried out these key regulatory and policy projects:
  • Stopped a Chicago zoning ordinance that would have drastically increased cost and uncertainty for owners of shared kitchens (that serve as community-based micro-business incubators); negotiated policy alternatives until ordinance was fully withdrawn by the sponsoring Alderman.
  • Proposed amendments and changes to an introduced Chicago ordinance to exempt more small business activities from the public place of amusement license requirements, one of the longest, most bureaucratic and most expensive licensing processes in the city.
  • Researched the opaque and costly process for zoning variance applications, identifying the barriers for people who cannot afford to—or do not even know they need to—hire attorneys and expert urban planners.
  • Researched the complicated systems deployed by Cook County and Chicago to manage vacant properties in their possession, laying the groundwork for the IJ Clinic’s efforts both to educate entrepreneurs about navigating the system to acquire vacant properties and to recommend steps to make the process simpler and more transparent.

In addition, the IJ Clinic led the continuing efforts to root out inequities in occupational licensing in Illinois. In the previous year, the IJ Clinic drafted and lobbied for two bills that passed in the Illinois General Assembly. Under the moniker CLIMB, standing for Comprehensive Licensing Information to Minimize Barriers, the new laws were designed to present the General Assembly with more information, data, and context about the unintentional or excessive burdens that the State of Illinois places on people starting jobs. Occupational licenses impose strict requirements for individuals who want to enter an occupation, like barbering or make-up artistry, or social work. By their very definition, they exclude people who cannot afford to meet the requirements (and put some people into debt to meet them). And that makes it very difficult for the low-income entrepreneurs we serve to start innovative or traditional businesses and to hire eligible employees. In one CLIMB bill, Public Act 102-1078, we designed a task force to analyze occupational licensing for low- to moderate-income occupations, with a focus on equity. In 2022-2023, we led the effort to set up the task force, collect and analyze relevant data, and present the task force with the information needed to complete their report. One key finding of our analysis of public occupational licensing data revealed that only 1.7% of low- to moderate-income licensees ever faced discipline from state regulators, and sixty-six percent of those disciplinary actions were initiated for state revenue collection, not for scope-of-practice infractions that could impact public health and safety. Our goal is to have a General Assembly that is well informed of the facts about individual people’s challenges, not just the goals of the trade associations and trade schools that benefit from exclusionary, restrictive licensing.

Impactful Community Outreach and Big Stage for South Side Entrepreneurs

The IJ Clinic provides educational seminars and community events aimed at offering entrepreneurs practical advice on starting and growing a business, with a healthy dose of inspiration along the way.

South Side Pitch: The IJ Clinic continues to shine a spotlight on innovation and inspiration from Chicago’s South Side entrepreneurs. South Side Pitch is a competition for businesses that culminates in the finalists facing off before a panel of prominent judges, Shark Tank style. In 2023, we had a live audience of over 105 attendees at the Polsky Center while also presenting a professional live video stream for a group of viewers. Rodney Trussell of R City Kitchen, through his own unique pitch, won three awards: First Place, The Community Favorite Award, and the Rustandy Center Social Impact Award. He went home with $15,500. Second Place went to April Preyar of Justus Junkie, Inc. In this tenth annual event, we reviewed more than 100 applications, exposed hundreds of Chicagoans to the twenty-five semi-finalists who posted video pitches and five finalists whose businesses contribute so much to their South Side neighborhoods. Often, South Side Pitch participants are prospective clients for the IJ Clinic where we can further support their business visions and growth.

Pitch Perfect: An opportunity for Chicagoland businesses to develop and hone the all-important business pitch hosted in the Green Lounge. In June 2024, our first Pitch Perfect of the year was open to any Chicago area business. As one participant noted “... I will incorporate all the knowledge I gleaned from the event last night as I move forward in my business. Also, I will definitely share information about this event to others I feel will equally benefit from this program.” In 2023, we also held Pitch Perfects in August and November with partner organizations like The Urban Juncture Foundation and its Build Bronzeville Small Business Development Center. Overall, nearly sixty participants attended all three Pitch Perfects in 2023.

Workshops: In 2024 the IJ Clinic has already hosted two workshops, one focused on vacant lots advocacy and another on website optimization for businesses. The IJ Clinic collaborated with 2022 South Side Pitch finalist CJ Harris of That’s So Creative, LLC to host the workshop “Make Your Website Work For You!” The IJ Clinic also hosted a roundtable with community leaders and local entrepreneurs who have encountered obstacles to obtaining city-owned vacant lots and who wish to reform the acquisition process. The group plans to reconvene in November or December of 2024 to consider any progress made by the city which has announced initiatives to streamline certain city processes to help make sure vacant lots in disinvested communities are given back to those community members.

Lunch Talks: In April 2024, the IJ Clinic collaborated with two student-led organizations, Impact Initiative and the Law and Business Society, to present two Lunch Talks. These two lunch talks included IJ Clinic clients Connie Anderson and Clifton Muhammad from The Record Track on revitalizing their neighborhood record store and Professors Tom and Amber Ginsburg’s creative and regulatory journey to transform an abandoned synagogue on the South Side into a green community arts center.

Deepening Connections with IJ Clinic Alumni

Generous with their time and openly sharing their experiences, we so appreciate our IJ Clinic alumni.

In January 2024, we held a happy hour for IJ Clinic alumni in New York City to reconnect with Professors Catherine Gryczan and Beth Kregor.

During the school year, IJ Clinic alumni were guest speakers in our seminar meetings. One spoke about her experience as a lawyer and advocate for businesses in the cannabis industry, and a pair of alumni shared their career paths before and into their roles as in-house counsel in a sports team, a financial firm, and a food services business.

Reflections from our IJ Clinic Students

While we are very proud of our achievements for our clients and community, we are also proud of all the aha moments when our students’ skills take a leap forward, when they make new connections between the classroom and the world, when they deliver difficult news, when they identify solutions to clients’ problems in a creative but practical way. Those moments of reflection and discovery are significant achievements too.

Here is how some of our students described the experience:

“I began my 3L year quite worried about whether I would be ready to practice law in just a few short quarters. But during my time at the Clinic, I learned such a wide array of hard and soft skills that I'm ready to enter the legal profession with confidence!”