The Legal Aid Society Honors Goodwin Lawyers and GO! Team With 2022 Pro Bono Publico Award

The Legal Aid Society (NYC) recently honored Goodwin lawyers and GO! Team members with its Pro Bono Publico Award for an innovative corporate pro bono project — the Business Law Basics for Cannabis Entrepreneurs workshop series. The Pro Bono Publico Awards recognize individuals and law firms for their outstanding and sustained achievements in pro bono services.

Goodwin’s Neighborhood Business Initiative, a firm-run pro bono program that brings business-related legal services to the front doors of entrepreneurs and small business owners, collaborated with The Legal Aid Society’s Community Development Project to run the Business Law Basics for Cannabis Entrepreneurs workshop series. The six-part series was designed to maximize the social and economic equity aspects of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act by demystifying the legal and regulatory foundations involved in launching a cannabis business in New York, and to make this information available to entrepreneurs who do not have access to legal services due to cost constraints or other barriers.

The first five sessions focused on raising capital for small businesses, crowdfunding, entity formation, contracts, and intellectual property. The sixth and final workshop will leverage the expertise of Goodwin’s leading Cannabis practice by focusing on regulatory considerations and will take place once additional regulations have been released. So far, almost 50 small business owners have joined the live workshop series, and the sessions will be preserved online to ensure continuous impact.

The Goodwin team who supported the workshop series includes: Ted Ames, Ava Bordonaro, Rebecca Broches, George Davis, Josh Eisenson, Michael Fahner, Jennifer Fisher, Chris Grobbel, Ariana Harris, Sona Karakashian, Mayan Katz, Andrew Kimball,Tina Larson, James Lathrop, Peter LaVigne, Jason Lawrence, David Li, Genna Lukshus, Simone Otenaike, Shawn Peng, Artem Skorostensky, Vanessa Torres, and Jason Yeoun.