New Remote Pro Bono Clinic Launched to Help North Carolina Nonprofits & Small Businesses Survive COVID-19

Winston & Strawn is pleased to help lead the launch of a new Small Business and Nonprofit Remote Legal Clinic created in partnership with law firms Kilpatrick Townsend, Nelson Mullins, and Cadwalader; the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center; and with the support of the Lawyers for Good Government Foundation, a non-profit network of more than 125,000 legal advocates with lawyers in all 50 states.

The clinic will offer pro bono consultations to assist small businesses and nonprofits with a wide range of time-sensitive legal issues that stem from the COVID-19 economic crisis. This is the latest in a series of ongoing efforts to adapt Winston’s pro bono work to meet the public’s current needs.

Saving Essential Local Services

Through this program, qualifying businesses and nonprofits with 25 or fewer employees will be offered free, 45-minute consultations. After registering online, they will be paired with attorneys who can answer their legal questions and determine the next appropriate steps based on that specific organization’s needs. That includes translating the legislative language in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), CARES Act, helping business owners file for pertinent grants and loans, and fielding questions related to employment, contracts, commercial leases, insurance and insolvency issues.

“Hundreds of thousands of small business owners, many of whom already operate on very narrow margins, are still struggling with questions about how their businesses will survive the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lawyers for Good Government’s executive director Traci Feit Love. “This small business legal clinic can help them navigate the economic crisis that was no fault of their own, and provide them with guidance they desperately need at this time.”