/news-archive/tag/business-innovations-clinic/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:01:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2019/03/21/community-development-course/ Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:01:03 +0000 /news/?p=73760 ... Business Innovations Legal Clinic hosts free course on joint ventures in community development]]> The event will be held from 6-8 p.m. in the student lounge on the second floor of Bowen Law School, 1201 McMath Ave. in Little Rock. The course also serves as the launch of the Business Innovation Legal Clinic鈥檚聽鈥淎ccess to Opportunity Handbook Series鈥澛爁or lawyers and community members, along with its first manual,聽鈥淲hen David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.鈥� The discussion will feature a panel of four speakers with backgrounds in community-based development throughout the United States. The speakers include:

• Barry Mallin,聽a New York City attorney with decades of experience representing nonprofits in tax credit transactions. Mallin was the primary author of聽鈥淲hen David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.鈥�
• Christopher Jones, an Arkansas native serving as executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub and former executive director of the nationally-recognized Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston.
• Warwick Sabin, senior director of U.S. programs of the Rockefeller Foundation who developed numerous local projects, including the South on Main and Oxford American cluster in Downtown Little Rock and the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock.
• Kim Vu-Dinh,聽visiting professor and director of the Business Innovations Legal Clinic at Bowen, whose past experience includes commercial and residential tax-credit based development in New Orleans. Vu-Dinh served as the primary editor of聽鈥淲hen David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.鈥�

All four speakers will discuss the best practices in community-based real estate developments and their firsthand experiences with projects both in and outside of Arkansas. A question-and-answer session will follow, and each聽attendee will receive a free copy of 鈥淲hen David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.鈥� This free event is open to all attorneys, students, and members of the public. Attorneys can receive two hours of continuing legal education credit. A complimentary meal will be provided by Ayo Foods, LLC, a worker-owned, new, local, business and client of the Business Innovations Legal Clinic.聽 with the number of attendees. The Business Innovations Legal Clinic provides high-quality, pro bono transactional legal counsel to small businesses and nonprofit organizations working in economic development, many of which would not be able to obtain legal assistance otherwise.聽This clinic is funded by a generous grant from the state’s Attorney General鈥檚 Office.]]> /news-archive/2019/01/17/business-innovations-clinic-escape-room/ Thu, 17 Jan 2019 18:05:48 +0000 /news/?p=73132 ... Business Innovations Clinic Law Students Escape Just in Time to Cast Their Votes]]> The Business Innovations Clinic works with small businesses and nonprofits to enhance economic development in Arkansas. Clinic students assist clients with issues ranging from legal formation, to intellectual property, and even drafting contracts. Last spring, the Business Innovations Clinic worked with Remix Ideas, LLC to teach and co-host an intellectual property law workshop called the ABC鈥檚 of Intellectual Property on the Bowen campus. Remix Ideas, a Little Rock social enterprise, focuses on accelerating black-owned business growth through mentoring, training, and consulting. Remix has hosted a number of community-based events, such as Africa Day Fest and multiple entrepreneur pitch contests. Through this partnership, the law school welcomed more than 40 African-American entrepreneurs into its doors for its workshop in April 2018. Two of the workshop attendees were Ericka Bennedicto and Juanenna Williams, co-creators and co-owners of the Underground Escape, Arkansas鈥� first social justice-themed escape room, named in inspiration of Harriet Tubman鈥檚 famed Underground Railroad. At the time of the workshop, the room was still in its infancy with only one room at a temporary location. Bennedicto and Williams created Underground Escape with the belief that fun activities, such as Underground Escape, have the potential to spur personal connection and conversations that last long after the experience itself. 鈥淎t Underground Escape, we combine recreation and education as a means to enlighten the community and raise consciousness around social justice issues,鈥� said Bennedicto. 鈥淲e try to use our business as a catalyst for social change and do this by using the escape room model as a fun and interactive platform to educate participants about social justice or civil rights issues.鈥� Armed with valuable information on how to protect their intellectual property and not infringe on the work of some of the civil rights leaders they hope to pay respect to in their business theme, Underground Escape opened a permanent location near 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 main campus on South University Avenue, with a second social justice-themed room. The first room, entitled “Give Us the Ballot,” focuses on the civil rights issues of 1957 and the Voting Rights Act.聽 The second room, “Saving Black Wall Street,” focuses on the history of an African-American commercial center in Oklahoma that was devastated by tragedy in 1921. As a team-building activity at the end of the semester, Business Innovations Clinic students had the opportunity to go through “Give Us The Ballot.” In this room, participants traveled back in time to 1957 to cast their vote. However, to do so, the group had to overcome Jim Crow barriers placed in their way. “Give Us the Ballot”聽included a number of interactive activities, such as puzzles, quizzes, and actual 1957 literacy test questions, before participants could cast a vote and escape the room. The students escaped from the room and were able to cast their vote in 54 minutes and 42 seconds 鈥搘ithout much time to spare. The experience included a debriefing by Bennedicto and Williams, who revealed fascinating insights into the students鈥� challenges and strengths. Business Innovations Clinic students found the intersection between entertainment and education to be refreshing. 鈥淥ne thing that really stood out to me was how they cleverly hid snippets of information around the room, hidden in each item we were tasked with unlocking,” said Abby Brenneman, a third year student. Another student, Jacob Bryan, echoed these sentiments. 鈥淚 found the references to the civil rights era to be a creative ice breaker for conversations concerning important social issues that are often difficult to discuss,鈥� Bryan said. Escaping from the room was no easy feat. Megan Douglas reflected that the escape room was harder than anticipated, but she enjoyed learning along the way by solving puzzles because the room did a great job of combining past history with present events that are often ignored and need discussion. Professor Kim Vu-Dinh, director of the Business Innovation Clinic, felt the room was a great supplementary teaching tool. 鈥淏eing able to visit the Escape Room was especially relevant to the goals of what we are trying to do at the law school,鈥� said Vu-Dinh. 鈥淔irst of all, it鈥檚 always a great experience for the students to see one of the businesses we counsel get up and running so soon after working with the clinic, but it鈥檚 especially exciting when you see students learn about civil rights history and the law in a hands-on way, because experiential learning is such a strong priority in the clinical setting, especially at Bowen. Best of all 鈥� it was fun!鈥� (Originally published in the Jan. 7-13, 2019, edition of The Daily Record. Reprinted with permission.)]]> /news-archive/2017/11/01/start-business-arkansas-workshop/ Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:08:22 +0000 /news/?p=68426 ... Bowen Law School hosts workshop on how to start a business in Arkansas]]> Starting a new business can be a long venture filled with legal questions.聽 The William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the will deliver a free workshop to help clear up the legal questions associated with opening a new business in Arkansas. The workshop, 鈥淟et鈥檚 Make It Legal,鈥� will take place from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, 201 E. Broadway St. in North Little Rock. The Innovation Hub is partnering with Bowen鈥檚 Business Innovations Clinic to present a free workshop where participants can learn how to start, structure, protect, and maintain a new business in Arkansas. Sager Patel, a third-year law student from Kenya with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in biology from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, and Kristina Hallock, a third-year law student from Jacksonville with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in chemistry from the University of Central Arkansas, will lead the workshop. In 2016, Bowen received a $1 million grant from the Arkansas Attorney General鈥檚 Office to create the clinic. Students enrolled in the Business Innovations Clinic, under the supervision of Kim Vu-Dinh, visiting assistant professor of law, work closely to serve the legal needs of small businesses, innovators, and non-profit organizations. The event is free and open to the public. Fill out the to reserve a spot in the workshop]]>