On April 26, DELVACCA joined with Philadelphia VIP and DELVACCA sponsor Duane Morris to host a free small business counseling clinic for clients of the Women’s Business Development Center in Center City. The Center’s mission is to empower micro-entrepreneurs (primarily but not exclusively women) to start new businesses and grow existing ones. Volunteer attorneys – who were paired up with the Center’s clients based on self-selected areas of expertise – gave advice to about two dozen people on choice of entity, employment, contracts, real estate, intellectual property, tax and other legal matters. Duane Morris lawyers were also on hand throughout the event, to offer extra assistance where needed.
About forty lawyers participated in the clinic, including both in-house counsel and members of the private bar. DELVACCA extends special thanks to DELVACCA member companies Escalon Medical Corp., Exelon, Radian Guaranty, Commonwealth Land Title Insurance, RightAction, Inc. and Lincoln Financial Group, as well as DELVACCA members Don Parman and Stephen Ford, whose participation helped make the event such a success.
Says Todd Borow, a former DELVACCA President who regularly attends DELVACCA’s and Philadelphia VIP’s Corporate Pro Bono Day events, “This is a great way to do pro bono work in my area of expertise, which is business counseling. I feel very comfortable advising small business owners and entrepreneurs in the legal clinic ‘checkup’ setting and can often spot a lot of issues in an hour of counseling that can really help these business owners. I encourage other DELVACCA members to get involved in these Corporate Pro Bono events!”
Stefanie F. Seldin, Managing Attorney at Philadelphia VIP, adds, “We love having corporate counsel at our small business clinics, since they have such a breadth of experience and can easily extrapolate their larger business experience into a smaller enterprise. All of the small business clients praise this event and are so grateful for the advice they receive.”
Please watch for a “Save the Date” email about our Next Corporate Pro Bono Day in October 2011, and be sure to join your fellow DELVACCA members for this late afternoon/early evening event combining free CLE, a light dinner, and another opportunity to counsel the small business entrepreneurs of the Women’s Business Development Center.
If you are interested in serving on the DELVACCA Pro Bono and Community Activity Committee, please contact Kevin.Stepanuk@exeloncorp.com or Amy Donohue-Babiak at Amy.Donohue-Babiak@jmusa.com.
Developed by Corporate Pro Bono
A global partnership project of the Pro Bono Institute and the Association of Corporate Counsel
www.cpbo.org