The University of Tennessee College of Law Legal Clinic is partnering with the Alliance for Better Nonprofits of Knoxville to expand its offering of free transactional legal services to nonprofit organizations, small businesses, entrepreneurs and artists.
Throughout its 70 years of service, the UT Legal Clinic has served thousands of clients.
With this renewed emphasis on community economic development through partnership with the Alliance for Better Nonprofits, the clinic hopes to serve an even greater population.
“The UT Legal Clinic has two goals: to provide legal services to people in East Tennessee who are unable to afford attorneys, and to provide UT law students the opportunity to address challenging legal issues,” Community Economic Development Clinic Professor Eric Amarante said.
“The partnership with the Alliance for Better Nonprofits helps the clinic reach both goals. ABN members are striving to increase their capacity and maximize their impact, and the clinic hopes our legal services will not only help ABN members reach these goals, but also provide students with invaluable learning opportunities.”
Under Amarante’s guidance, student attorneys will assist businesses with:
- Forming nonprofit corporations;
- Forming for-profit subsidiaries;
- Reviewing, drafting, and negotiating contracts and memorandums of understanding;
- Reviewing and drafting tax-exempt applications;
- Reviewing and drafting governance documents (e.g., bylaws, policies and procedures, etc.);
- Conducting legal audits (organizational check-ups);
- Providing board governance advice; and
- Providing copyright and trademark advice.
Amarante said while the Community Economic Development Clinic is launching this fall, it’s merely an extension of the established services that are being provided by one of the longest running clinical programs in the country.
“We are proud to add ABN to the countless list of collaborations we’ve formed with the East Tennessee community over the past 70 years,” Amarante said.