The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship (IJ Clinic) continues to be a lifeline for legal support and an active advocate for under-resourced small businesses in Chicago in 2025-26 through our meaningful representation of low-income entrepreneurs, advocacy for economic liberty, and outreach to small businesses throughout the city. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners, particularly in the South and West Sides of Chicago, struggle to navigate the changing economic and regulatory landscape in both Chicago and the State of Illinois. IJ Clinic students and attorneys were able to provide invaluable guidance to clients and lawmakers so that the small businesses that are key to our economic future can survive and flourish.

IJ Clinic Clients

Underserved Chicago Entrepreneurs

The IJ Clinic advises Chicago entrepreneurs looking to transform their companies and communities. In our role as outside general counsel for a select group of client businesses, we forge long-term relationships and are uniquely situated to gain insights into the business objectives and operations of our clients. In 2025, we welcomed six new clients and in 2026 we continued advising them and other longer standing clients. Students guide our process of client selection, providing their input on the kinds of projects and clients they would find most engaging.

Our clients feature businesses across various industries and neighborhoods:

• a co-op grocery store in the formation stage aiming to provide a comprehensive, sustainable, community-based solution addressing food insecurity in an area designated as a food desert by the USDA on Chicago’s South Side.
• a maker of wine and mead using locally produced ingredients in a converted former industrial building near a forest preserve and bike path on the Far South Side of Chicago with a tasting room, patio, and production facility.
• a family run restaurant with multiple South Side locations, formerly in a caboose 20 years ago, it currently has brick and mortar restaurants in Greater Grand Crossing and the South Loop, a food truck and the newest location is on Chicago's Riverwalk.
• an urban agriculture business educating students from grade school to high school and the public about growing food in the city with regenerative farming practices.
• a solopreneur who manufactures and sells frozen treats and baked desserts through street vending and outdoor events.
• a business that manufactures gourmet egg rolls and provides coaching and consulting for smaller food manufacturing companies.
• a father and son operated business that delivers exceptional tree care on the Southwest Side.
• a business that provides mobile dance and fitness services to nonprofits, after school programs, and local businesses.
• a solopreneur that manufactures handmade soaps and salves.
• a vinyl record store with plans to evolve to offer on-site music experiences with innovative interactive technology and plans to develop neighboring vacant properties into a community accessible space to better their neighborhood.
• a company that makes distinctive tea blends for children and adults and nurtures the traditions and rituals around making tea.
• a coffee shop, committed to being a safe and cozy third space for the owner’s community and marginalized people in Chicago.
• a flower shop, beautifying the spaces of customers and the neighborhood where it is renovating a building.
• a company that created toothpaste that features special ingredients and is for health-conscious consumers.

IJ Clinic Transactional Projects

The IJ Clinic advises on a wide array of transactional and regulatory issues including entity structures, finance, real estate, employment, IP strategy and protection, business licenses, zoning matters, regulatory compliance, and customer- and vendor-facing contracts. Students benefit from frequent client interactions, leading meetings, scoping out projects, and delivering results. In addition to researching legal issues, students develop communication and organizational skills, including how to deliver creative solutions and sometimes unwelcome news. By providing free general counsel to our clients, they help clients transform their companies and communities. Details of our engagement with and representation of our clients are confidential, of course. But here is a sampling of some of the major projects, students worked on for clients in the past year:

• Successfully advocated before the Zoning Board of Appeals to acquire a zoning variation by organizing community support and presenting legal arguments in writing and in a hearing.
• Drafted an extensive agreement to operationalize a business collaboration within restrictions created by other contracts binding our client.
• Drafted an LLC operating agreement for a family business, expecting family members to exit and enter the business in the near future.
• Researched environmental laws and informed a client of compliance requirements.
• Helped a client analyze and negotiate a deal to design custom products and arrange for their manufacture.
• Counseled a client on risks of immigration enforcement arresting workers and the boundaries of constitutional protections for private property.
• Counseled clients on multiple changes to the city, state, and federal laws around selling products with hemp as an ingredient.
• Strategized how to reach an agreement with a co-founder who denied our client an equity stake in the business they started together.
• Researched and advised on strategy for IP protection including creating a Proprietary Information and Inventions Assignment Agreement.
• Prepared an application for trademark registration. Responded to office actions in which the USPTO raised questions about potentially conflicting marks.
• Drafted a template agreement for wholesale clients.
• Advised a client on a strategy to get customers more involved in the business's strategic planning and funding.
• Devised a plan to restructure a business's multiple entities.
• Counseled a client on the options for acquiring a competitor and the due diligence process.
• Presented legal research and set up votes for the board and membership of a nonprofit.
• Advised clients on the license or licenses required to expand the business into new locations on a temporary or small-scale basis.
• Advised a client on utilizing AI to conduct phone intake with their customers.
• Closed on the acquisition of four vacant lots for a client to build an urban farm that will satisfy community needs and grant requirements.
• Guided a client on how to set up and utilize an advisory board.

For multiple start-up clients, we:

• Reviewed organizational documents and counseled on entity governance compliance, board duties, and elections.
• Counseled clients on entity formation and proposed restructurings taking into account tax implications.
• Recommended best practices on employment and independent contractor arrangements.
• Researched and advised on compliance with various federal regulations, including FDA and FTC guidance for product marketing.
• Reviewed complex rules for complying with various grants including the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund and Chicago Recovery Grant to support clients in successfully complying with grant terms and receiving critical grant funds.
• Advised on compliance with Chicago regulations for retail businesses.
• Analyzed strategy for trademark protection, in view of competitors’ similar marks.
• Created master forms of contracts for clients to use with customers and vendors.

IJ Clinic Client Testimonial

As one of our clients expressed to our student team this summer, “The odds of becoming a farmer who owns their own land in the US are 1 in 125. Thank you for making it happen!” This is following the culmination of a three-year process to identify, apply for and ultimately purchase land for an urban farm in Chicago’s West Side.

IJ Clinic Regulatory and Policy Projects

The IJ Clinic continues to act as a watchdog, advocating for legislative and policy

reforms to dismantle excessive regulatory barriers that keep entrepreneurs from making their dreams a reality.

In the academic year 2025-26, the IJ Clinic researched, analyzed, strategized, and

advocated for policy reforms at both the state and city levels, including these key regulatory and policy projects:

• Enacted the first paid cosmetology apprenticeship program in Illinois in over 40 years: With the passage of HB 3460, aspiring barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians, nail techs, and hair braiders will have a new path to licensure that allows them to “earn while they learn” and avoid going into debt to attend school. Apprentices can work in licensed salons or shops under the supervision of licensed professionals being instructed in the same state-mandated curriculum used by cosmetology schools. The difference is apprentices will earn a wage for the time they spend training that increases as they grow their skills.
• Enacted second chance reforms helping returning residents secure occupational licenses: In many licensing acts in Illinois, the state uses an outdated and subjective test to determine occupational license eligibility for formerly incarcerated applicants. Rather than asking “is this person ‘of good moral character’”, we successfully advocated for using a “directly related” test, asking instead “is the work of the license you’re applying for directly related to the conviction you received?” If you were convicted of burglary, it will likely prevent you from becoming a licensed locksmith, but it shouldn’t preclude you from other licensed occupations. While this “good moral character” test is still in use in some licensing acts, the passage of HB 4762 replaces it in a number of licenses and is a positive step toward eliminating this standard entirely, as many other states have done.
• Supported a successful effort to upzone a stretch of North Broadway Avenue: Three Alderpersons from the Far North Side of Chicago with limited housing supply sought to upzone a two milelong stretch of North Broadway Avenue, easing zoning restrictions for housing projects and small business owners seeking commercial space. In the face of fierce opposition, we lobbied and gave compelling testimony in support of the ordinance which ultimately passed the full City Council. This upzoning creates more spaces for small businesses and allows more business activities by right to operate in that zone.
• Built a coalition to negotiate a new ordinance for sidewalk food vendors: We met repeatedly with an organization of vendors and representatives of the city to discuss expanding the kinds of food carts that the city will license. We organized a coalition of shared kitchen owners and street vendors, and a food safety expert from the University of Illinois system to push back on requirements that lacked an evidentiary basis. One of the key concessions was around handwashing water temperature. City officials initially mandated that handwashing water be mechanically heated to a specific temperature, but they removed this provision when we demonstrated that the latest research demonstrates that handwashing with room temperature water is just as effective at removing germs as hot water.
• Lobbied for regulatory improvements for Chicago’s Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): Also known as “granny flats”, the IJ Clinic lobbied city government and provided in-person testimony in support of an ordinance that would ease restrictions on property owners adding additions or small separate dwelling spaces on property they own. This is a part of our boarder initiatives around zoning justice.

In addition, the IJ Clinic is leading continuing efforts to root out inequities in occupational licensing across Illinois. After leading the Comprehensive Licensing Information to Minimize Barriers (“CLIMB”) Task Force, the IJ Clinic launched a state legislative agenda with a slate of four bills derived from the recommendations presented in the report, successfully enacting two of the four bills into law. The IJ Clinic will continue seeking to enact the remaining two bills from our licensing agenda and plans to spend the upcoming year working with GOMB and IDFPR to better understand the sunset process for cosmetology licensing and offer

recommendations to streamline and strengthen the analysis, giving legislators a clearer picture of how occupational licenses impact the licensees themselves.

Community Outreach and Big Stage for South Side Entrepreneurs

The IJ Clinic provides educational seminars and community events aimed at offering entrepreneurs practical advice on starting and growing a business, with a healthy dose of inspiration along the way.

South Side Pitch

The IJ Clinic continues to shine a spotlight on innovation and inspiration from Chicago’s South Side entrepreneurs. South Side Pitch is a shark tank style pitch competition for smaller South Side based businesses that culminates in the finalists facing off before a panel of prominent judges. In 2025, we had a record number of applications and held the final stage of competition at the Polsky Exchange North Center with a live audience of over 130 attendees. Owner, Alison Eichorn of Runaway Cow, through her unique pitch and venture for her local vegan ice cream and dessert shop in Bridgeport, won First Place and went home with $15,000. Second Place went to Sam Thousand of ChiBrations, who also took home the Community Favorite Award, and the Rustandy Center Social Impact Award totaling more than $13,500. In this 12th annual event, we reviewed more than 168 applications, and we introduced thousands of Chicagoans to the twenty-five semifinalists who posted video pitches and five finalists whose businesses contribute so much to their South Side neighborhoods.

Often, South Side Pitch participants are prospective clients and allies for the IJ Clinic. We look for opportunities to further support their business visions and growth as lawyers or lobbyists for small business owners.

Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect is an annual opportunity for Chicagoland businesses of all stages to develop and hone the all-important business elevator pitch hosted in the Green Lounge with the coaching of the IJ Clinic team and business advisors in a roundtable setting. In June 2025, our first Pitch Perfect of the year was open to any Chicago area business. We also held another Pitch Perfect in August 2025 for South Side Pitch applicants. Overall, over 60 participants attended both Pitch Perfects.

Workshops

Throughout the 2025-26 school year, the IJ Clinic hosted two lunch talks at the Law School, engaging local civic leaders, clients, and law students.

Zoning Policy Lunch Talk with 3 Sitting Alderpersons

In January 2026, the IJ Clinic hosted Aldermen Matt Martin, Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, and Alderwoman Angela Clay for a lunch talk open to the University and Law Students on efforts for urban redesign and upzoning portions of North Broadway on the Far North Side of Chicago. They spoke openly about the intersection of zoning policy and political realities.

Choice of Entity Workshop

In March 2026, the IJ Clinic hosted a workshop at the Polsky Exchange North Center in which we provided guidance to entrepreneurs on how to choose the most optimal business entity for their particular circumstances.

From Vision to Venture Lunch Talk

In May 2026, we hosted a lunch talk featuring two IJ Clinic Clients, Eyad Zeid of Nabala Café and Davíd Toledo of Contemporary Farmer, Inc. Two IJ Clinic students led the conversation with them about their entrepreneurial journeys and their experience of being an IJ Clinic client.

Reflections from IJ Clinic Students and Alumni

IJ Clinic Student Reflections: While we are very proud of our achievements for our clients and community, we are also proud of all the aha moments when our students’ skills take a leap forward, when they make new connections between the classroom and the world, when they deliver difficult news, and when they identify solutions to clients’ problems in a creative but practical way. Those moments of reflection and discovery are significant achievements too. Here is how two 2026 graduates of the Law School described their IJ Clinic experience:

“Thank you so much for everything! Being in the IJ Clinic was far and away my favorite part of law school. I learned so much and will lean on that knowledge tremendously in my career! You and Beth have shaped me into the lawyer I (almost) am, and I could never express my gratitude for that enough, especially as a first-generation law student who had no idea how to navigate this new world!”

“…more importantly, the gift of having you both as clinical professors and mentors. IJ Clinic has been at the top of my experiences in law school and I'm so grateful that I took the job my 1L summer and had so many rewarding experiences and learned so much from the both of you.”

IJ Clinic Alumni Connections: We build strong relationships with our students and stay in touch even after graduation. We love hearing from our alumni about their career trajectories and lives. Sometimes they share news of their latest achievements and other times they seek our input on strategic career decisions. We provided letters of reference for those students seeking judicial clerkships or other roles where we can support their applications.

Alumni often talk about the client advising skills they gained from their time in the IJ Clinic and about their passion for supporting small businesses. Some have even gone on to create their own businesses. As an annual tradition we introduce alumni to our current students by inviting them to speak at one of our seminar sessions.

In Spring 2026, there were four alumni who shared their career paths and experiences with our current students. Those alumni currently are in-house counsel with notable companies and venture funds as well as a legal product manager. With laptops and cell phones stored away, this was an interactive discussion that was rewarding for all of us.