April.16.2013
One of our pro bono teams recently participated in an innovative conference with Georgetown University law students who are part of a social enterprise class—a prelude to a social enterprise clinic that Georgetown Law will begin this fall.
Our team discussed their legal work on behalf of several social entrepreneur clients: Noel Pacheco focused on the work we have done for SunFunder, a crowd funding platform that connects individual investors with quality, vetted, high-impact solar businesses working on the ground in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean; Sid Venkatesan talked about Urban Logic, a nonprofit that seeks to promote the development of more ethical banks, where decisions are made transparently; and former associate Tonio DeSorrento (now with client Pave) discussed the work we have done for Lumni, a nonprofit that designs and manages social-investment funds that invest in the education of diversified pools of students.
The purpose of the class is to advance the emerging field of law and social entrepreneurship. Instead of just speaking in general terms about this subject matter, the class seeks to develop case studies about the clients to provide the broader social entrepreneurship community with specific examples of how the law is being used to further the objectives of social entrepreneurs. In addition to sharing best practices and sharing knowledge, these case studies also will add to the discussion of how the practice of law may or may not be different for business and social entrepreneurs. Once the case studies are finalized, they will be circulated to Ashoka, one of the leading organizations focused on social entrepreneurship, among other organizations.
Alicia Plerhoples, associate professor of Law and director of the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic at Georgetown, said the presentations given by our team were critical to the success of the class and to the development of the case studies.
"The Orrick attorneys provided practical and specific examples of how the law impacted and affected our social entrepreneur clients who are motivated by both profit and social interests," said Alicia.
Our participation was organized by Rene Kathawala.