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100 Lawyers Offer Free Support to 250 Entrepreneurs

Economic Justice

100+ Attorneys to Offer Free Legal Help to Small Minority- and Immigrant-Owned Businesses at “BizGrow”

One-Day Event Expected To Assist Over 250 Entrepreneurs

Lawyers for Civil Rights and 14 Boston law firms and corporate sponsors will host BizGrow, a free event providing hundreds of small minority-owned and immigrant-owned small businesses with free legal consultations and technical support. BizGrow will be held on July 18 from 1-6 PM at Suffolk Law School (120 Tremont Street in Boston). Now in its third year, this one-day event will serve over 250 entrepreneurs with over 100 volunteer attorneys and business professionals offering free assistance.

“Building wealth in communities of color is a key part of the civil rights movement,” said Priya Lane, Economic Justice Project Director at Lawyers for Civil Rights.  Ms. Lane noted that recent reports such as the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s The Color Of Wealth In Boston continue to show alarming disparities in wealth between white and non-white households in Boston. “With BizGrow, we aim to close that opportunity gap by connecting small minority- and immigrant-owned businesses to the critical resources they need to grow and thrive.”

BizGrow will feature volunteer attorneys from 14 Boston law firms – including Goodwin, Nixon Peabody, Latham & Watkins, WilmerHale, Morgan Lewis, Foley Hoag, Mintz Levin, and DLA Piper – providing free one-on-one legal consultations to entrepreneurs on small business legal issues. BizGrow will also offer more than 20 technical assistance workshops including:

  • Goodwin on raising capital, doing business online, and food labeling;
  • Latham & Watkins on contracts;
  • Tufts Health Plan on health insurance options for small businesses;
  • Financial institutions such as Santander, Boston Private, Eastern Bank, Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, Accion, LEAF, and Boston Impact Initiative on access to capital for small businesses.

BizGrow is a project of LCR’s Economic Justice Project, which annually serves over 500 small businesses across numerous industries.  LCR connects pro bono attorneys to entrepreneurs with specific legal needs, and conducts technical assistance workshops throughout the year on topics of interest to small businesses.  Over 90% of businesses assisted are minority-owned or immigrant-owned, and over 60% are women-owned. For more information visit our Economic Justice Project.

BizGrow