Boston College Law School gives its students a wide range of classes to take that are taught by some of the best scholars in the field. Yet, while learning about the law in a classroom is crucial to becoming a successful attorney, nothing prepares you for day-to-day practice more than getting hands-on experience before graduating. That’s where BC Law’s clinics come in.

Law students in their second and third years of study can apply for coveted spots in any of the school’s fifteen clinics. No matter what someone’s legal interest is, there’s a clinic for them! To help students better understand the opportunities available to them, the BC Law Impact Blog is highlighting each of these clinics this semester. Here is our interview with one of the directors of the Community Enterprise Clinic, Paul Tremblay.

Tell us about your clinic!

The Community Enterprise Clinic (CEC) is a transactional clinic in which students represent both for-profit and nonprofit small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups for business-related matters. Unlike most other BC Law clinics, which are litigation-focused, we never go to court or engage in formal dispute resolution. Instead, we give advice about how to establish and operate businesses lawfully, and we offer many necessary services to the founders and managers of these businesses. We set up entities, apply for trademarks, get our clients tax-exempt statuses from the IRS, offer employment guidance, and draft the contracts and similar documents that businesses need.

What’s the origin story of the Community Enterprise Clinic, or of your time directing it?

The origin story of the CEC and of my time directing it are one and the same. In the early 2000s, some dedicated students were searching for a transactional clinical experience at BC Law focused on community and economic development. We didn’t offer one back then. Some students on occasion had cross-registered or volunteered at a Harvard Law School program, and we might’ve had an externship placement or two, but nothing else. At the time, I taught as a poverty-law litigator in the Civil Litigation Clinic at the Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau in Waltham, MA. In that role, I had written a lot about the dilemma of poverty lawyers working on individual disputes instead of using their talents to craft empowerment strategies for the communities they served.

I consulted with several students looking for a transactional experience, and we decided that I would try to switch my role and see if I could oversee a new clinic. Four students in the Class of 2008 worked tirelessly in their 2L and the beginning of their 3L years to learn about (and poach from) the few similar clinics around the country at the time, and we launched the CEC in January 2008. All of those students got into the inaugural class, of course, along with a couple of other brave souls. I had no idea what I was doing during the first few semesters, but we learned together, and it was a wonderful experience. That was 16 years ago, and the program has really blossomed since then.

What makes the Community Enterprise Clinic unique?

What makes the CEC quite special is that we have the most exciting and impressive clients. Almost all of the enterprises we represent are run by, were founded by, or are owned by persons of color. We work closely with the Roxbury program of Entrepreneurship for All (“EforAll”), an incubator for startup businesses with a focus on the BIPOC community. The for-profit clients have terrific ideas for businesses that can meet real needs, and the nonprofit founders are passionately committed to social justice goals. Each and every one of our clients is optimistic, courageous, creative, and really interesting. I tell my students over and over that I have stumbled into the world’s best job.

Does the Community Enterprise Clinic have any exciting success stories to share?

There are so many exciting businesses and programs we’ve worked with, so I can only highlight a few. Jouveth Shortell came to us many years ago for help starting ABC Spanish in Motion, a program to teach toddlers Spanish language and culture through song and dance. Her business now includes three successful Montessori schools in Newton. Netia McCray also had recently graduated from MIT when she started Mbadika, a program to offer entrepreneurship and STEM programming to children in the Roxbury area, and also in sub-Saharan Africa. We’ve worked with Netia since 2015, helping establish Mbadika, Inc. as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it continues to do great work today.

Another client we’ve worked with for years is Accompany Doula Care, a very successful provider of doula services to Medicaid-eligible birthing mothers in Massachusetts. We even helped with The Nada Cart, an empanada take-out spot which had been gaining prominence in Boston, and we were there at the beginning of Justice at Work, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrant workers and represents worker centers. Oh, and we also helped, just a little bit, to start Drizly. There are so many more, but you get the idea!

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Tess Halpern is a third-year student and president of the Impact blog. Contact her at halperte@bc.edu.