Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship—Significant Achievements for 2019-20
The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship (IJ Clinic) continued to be a lifeline for small businesses in Chicago in 2019-20 through our in-depth representation of low-income entrepreneurs, advocacy for economic liberty, and outreach for small businesses throughout the city. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs and small business owners struggled to navigate a changing economic and regulatory landscape. The IJ Clinic’s students and attorneys were able to provide invaluable guidance and resources to our clients and our community.
In the past year, the IJ Clinic guided clients through unprecedented crises and opportunities for their businesses. Here are a few examples.
After years of navigating confusing, contradicting, and conflicting information from the city about the requirements for a pushcart vendor license, we witnessed and celebrated as the first member of the Street Vendors Association of Chicago passed inspection. The IJ Clinic also helped the Street Vendors Association spin off a cooperative, under a brand-new law in Illinois. The cooperative is now planning to purchase and rehab the building where the Vendors Kitchen is, with help from the IJ Clinic.
Cut Cats Courier, a worker-owned bicycle delivery business, deliberated restructuring its LLC and overhauling its tax structure. Students walked them through their options at an 11pm meeting of the membership (after the shifts of delivering food for restaurants were complete).
Haji Healing Salon continued to offer yoga, community acupuncture, and other needed healing services out of a storefront in Chatham -- that is, when it was not closed due to flooding or a pandemic. The IJ Clinic team counseled Haji through licensing, leasing, and customer contracts throughout the year. In spite of the challenges, the business has grown, and the IJ team worked with Haji to negotiate for new space and to map out regulatory compliance for an innovative new business model.
Dinobi Detergent was a new client in the year 2019-20. We met the dynamic couple running the family business when they competed in and won our South Side Pitch competition in October. The business sells a plant-based laundry detergent that is effective on every stain and smell without using any harsh ingredients. The legal team from the IJ Clinic is now in place and has proven itself essential immediately, to review their structure and governance, while advising them on securing intellectual property, advertising, and many contracts for distribution opportunities.
Back of the Yards Coffee has become a community hub for neighbors in pursuit of a great cup of coffee, a space to connect, or a contribution to economic development. The founders wanted the neighborhood where they grew up to benefit from a coffee shop, but they could not convince any big-name coffee companies to move in. So they started it themselves. This year, the IJ Clinic team has counseled the business through corporate governance, expansion into new locations, trademarking, and hiring. We also worked with them on understanding the Paycheck Protection Program and advocating for its reform.
Before COVID hit hard, the IJ Clinic was hard at work on major lobbying efforts. After years of persistent advocacy, we celebrated the city’s creation of a new license for mobile boutiques. We prepared a white paper and model legislation for the state to adopt to reduce the unnecessary burdens that occupational licensing places on workers and entrepreneurs in Illinois. Students on that team researched occupational licensing extensively, wrote up their findings, and were starting to present their recommendations to state officials. Meanwhile, another IJ Clinic student was revising a bill to expand opportunities for home-based food businesses. We were teeing up our advocacy materials and negotiating the language of the bill with state and county health departments. Then Springfield shut down the legislative session to all but emergency bills related to the pandemic.
The IJ Clinic pivoted to address the issues at hand at every level of government. We quickly created a resource page about the legal ins and outs of new legislation. Students drafted memos on the CARES Act and the interplay with state relief programs. We put together a template that landlords and tenants could use to amend their leases during the months of disruption and closures. We outlined the measures that the city should take to make sure licensing and permitting were flexible for business owners that were trying to reinvent themselves and stay afloat while staying at home. As we counseled clients on the rules for Paycheck Protection Program loans (which were being released after the first fund ran out of money), we identified problems with the SBA regulations that would handicap our clients and many other businesses around the country. So we submitted a comment letter to the SBA, outlining the grave problems with restrictions on loans for businesses with owners who had interacted with the criminal justice system and restrictions on forgiveness of loans if the business did not spend 75% on payroll. We are proud that Congress has addressed these problems in revisions to the legislation.
Lastly, the IJ Clinic continues to shine a spotlight on entrepreneurship on the South Side of Chicago. While many news stories about the South Side focus on crime or poverty, the IJ Clinic lifts up the models of innovation and inspiration among the South Side’s entrepreneurs. The South Side Pitch is a competition for those innovators that culminates in a wonderful evening for the finalists to face off before a panel of expert judges and the standing room only audience, a la Shark Tank. Finalists in 2019 included a detergent company, a mobile car wash service, an app for truckers, a coffee pop inventor, and a collective of midwives. In April, the IJ Clinic launched Shop in Place Chicago, which gathered profiles of small businesses that were ready to sell important products to Chicagoans staying at home.