Law Students help non-native English speakers one business at a time

The University of Cincinnati College of Law’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic is breaking ground and supporting small business owners across town.  The ECDC offers business legal services to Cincinnati small business owners who don’t have the resources to hire an attorney of their own.

Once a business applies and is selected by the ECDC, two law students are assigned to the client along with a supervisor. The supervisors are local attorneys who volunteer as mentors for the law students. All decisions and documents are reviewed by the supervisor before delivery to the client. Each project lasts a semester.

In addition to their supervisors, the students also stay under the constant guidance of the founder and director of the clinic, Cincinnati Law professor Lewis Goldfarb.

Gibran Peña-Porras, a third-year Cincinnati Law student and ECDC intern, explains that students receive school credit, but more importantly, they gain real-life practical experience.

“All services provided by the clinic are pro bono. The only thing that is charged to the owner are any fees that the government asks for," he explains.

Since ECDC launched in 2001, Peña-Porras says it's involved 174 law students, offered 10 legal training seminars, represented 282 local entrepreneurs, provided more than 400 legal consultations, completed more than 1,000 legal matters, and contributed more than $1.2 million of pro bono services to the local economy.

Needless to say, the clinic is making moves in the Cincinnati business community. And for the first time ever, Peña-Porras says the clinic now offers a Spanish-speaking branch to work with clients with students now providing consultations in Spanish.   

Members of the Latino Law Student Association decided to pursue the initiative after seeing a need for a Spanish-speaking branch of the ECDC. As president of the LLSA, and with Professor Goldfarb’s support, Peña-Porras initiated a collaboration that combined the strengths of ECDC and LLSA, later becoming the Spanish branch of the ECDC. He says it all started with a simple email, and “snowballed into seminars and presentations to the board of visitors, the dean, and even UC President Pinto.”

Peña-Porras explains that the clinic is always looking for passionate students who are interested in gaining real-life business legal experience while earning school credit. The students are given significant responsibility that can only come from hands-on work, and guidance from Professor Goldfarb and their supervisor.

Although involved in several other student organizations, Peña-Porras plans to return to the ECDC clinic as a supervisor after he graduates this spring and help to continue growing the program. He says, “I have a lot of pride in my law school and I’m determined to give back as much as I can.”