Programs Cater to Portland Region’s Entrepreneurs
Published Mar 24, 2008
Lisa LeSage says the Small Business Legal Clinic of Lewis & Clark Law School has helped scores of clients.
Staying on top of daily activities is about all most new business owners can handle. Networking, legal assistance and obtaining affordable office space are typically on a to-do list – and often don’t get done quickly. But in Portland, several entities stand ready to help entrepreneurs with these and other vital issues.
Since September 2006, Lewis & Clark Law School has operated the Small Business Legal Clinic, which provides a broad range of services to cash-strapped fledgling businesses. Staffed by students and supervised by a clinical law professor, the clinic also benefits from attorneys who work pro bono.
In the first year of operation, it helped more than 80 clients, says Lisa LeSage, associate dean and director of business law programs at the law school.
“We talked to small business incubators in town and found that low-income, minority and women-owned businesses often don’t have access to lawyers,” LeSage says. “We wanted to give students an opportunity to really work with clients and lawyers in the community, but also make this a real community-based effort.”
In fact, the clinic has been so successful that it has been adopted by Intel Corp.’s national corporate counsel office as a pro bono project. And with referrals on the rise, additional staff and a speaker’s bureau are being planned.
A ‘Living Lab’ at Portland State
It’s just as busy at the Portland State Business Accelerator, which focuses on startup technology companies in several industries – green tech and sustainability, information technology and software, and electronics.
The 4-year-old PSBA is a part of Portland State University, so its tenants benefit not only from affordable office space and increased visibility in the central business district, but also from being able to tap into a strong faculty and student community, says Carol Mason, director.
“Our residents have a living lab, being so closely linked to the university,” Mason says. “We have M.B.A. students come in and do business plans and market research for our companies, and [the companies are] able to get interns and part-time employees from the campus. We also have one company here that’s headed by a PSU faculty member, so the university link is an important part of what we do.”
As of late 2007, the incubator had 21 resident companies and had graduated three others: ComPiere, a software firm; viaLanguage, an online translation service; and VisionSite, which specializes in business management Web applications.
These programs and others in the region enhance the work of the Portland Business Alliance, which counts small businesses as 80 percent of its membership, says Pam Knowles, chief operating officer and general counsel.
“We pay a lot of attention to them,” Knowles says. “Many of our networking events focus on small business, from Shoptalk, a morning event, to business-after-hours gatherings and our Cornerstones for Success education program.
“It’s a collaborative effort here, which is really the Portland way,” she continues. “Small businesses always need to make connections, and when they spend most of their time working in their business, it’s very hard to work on that as well.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Jeff Adkins
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