Entrepreneurial Law Clinic Helps Prospective Denver Hispanic Entrepreneurs

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic led a presentation to 30 prospective Denver entrepreneurs about how to select and form a legal entity when starting a business. Yesterday’s presentation at the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was as part of 12-week course concerning how to start a business by Cultura Business Communications’, which provides training and consulting focusing on Latino business with the goal of bridging understanding between American and Hispanic business cultures.

The presentation is part of an informal relationship started in January 2006 between the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic and Cultura. Assistant Clinical Professor Brad Bernthal, who leads the Clinic, was joined by Colorado Law alumni Jon Sargent (’06), an attorney in Boulder’s Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein, and Marta Jucha (’08), who is joining the Clinic for the 2007-08 term. Sargent’s practice includes securities and real estate matters. The Clinic will lead another Cultura class on July 9 concerning intellectual property matters in which alumnae and Faegre & Benson attorney Rita Sanzgiri (’06) will join. 

Cultura’s classes are split into English and Spanish-speaking sections. Jucha, who previously practiced as an attorney in Mexico, provided language assistance that enabled Bernthal and Sargent to deliver their presentations to both sections. Bernthal, who was pleased with the results, said, “It is terrific to see coordination like this between past and current Clinic students. Perhaps most importantly, the Cultura attendees were fully engaged and delighted with the quality of discussion.” 

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic presents information to Cultura’s classes roughly every two months. During the fall and spring semesters, supervised Clinic students lead outreach presentations. The benefits of such interactions are twofold. First, entrepreneurs are able to learn about legal issues that are often inaccessible to individuals without a legal background or business sophistication. Second, interaction with entrepreneurs allows students to understand the entrepreneurial mindset better. Students learn to think globally about how to translate technical and legal concepts into something comprehensible for non-lawyers.

“Brad and his students do a great job of making legal issues accessible for our students,” said Cheryl Lucero, who spearheads Cultura’s 12-week business course. “This is information that many of our entrepreneurs otherwise would not get exposed to.”   

Occasionally, the Clinic’s presentations lead to client relationships between the Clinic and the entrepreneurs who come through Cultura’s classes. Work performed by Clinic students for Cultura clients has included assistance in setting up an LLC, advising concerning intellectual property protection strategies, and providing contract‑related assistance.

In addition to its work with Cultura, the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic has been active in conducting outreach with other area entities. Its activities over the past year have included presentations to Micro Business Development, a business development entity in Denver, the BARD Center for Entrepreneurship (part of the CU at Denver Business School), and the Boulder-based TechStars program.