Small Business Legal Assistance Program

A Project of the Allegheny County Bar Association/Foundation

Provides assistance and advice to small businesses in the areas of employment law, tax law, intellectual property, corporate law, contracts, leases, and small claims litigation. This project is managed by members of the Public Service Committee.

Public Contact:	Click here for an Application for Assistance Mail, fax, or email the application, with the required attachments, to: Small Business Legal Assistance Program c/o Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP 2700 Fifth Avenue Place, 120 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Fax: 412-577-5190 E-mail: sblap@schnader.com
Client eligibility:	In order to be eligible for this program, the client must be operating or starting a business for profit, have fewer than 10 employees, have or intend to have a principal place of business in Allegheny County, and demonstrate that the business owner’s income is less than 250% of the current HHS Poverty Guidelines.
Practice Areas:	Employment Tax Intellectual Property Corporate Contracts Leases Small Claims Litigation
Type of service:	Provides assistance and advice to small businesses in the areas of employment law, tax law, intellectual property, corporate law, contracts, leases, and small claims litigation.
Current needs: Ongoing.	In need of attorneys willing to give advice in the following areas: Employment law: general advice, drafting of basic documents Tax law: general advice Intellectual property: general advice, trademark or copyright filings Business Organization/Corporate Law: choice of entity, entity formation, corporate filings (client responsible for all filing fees), general advice on filing requirements, obtaining any necessary licenses or registrations Contracts: contract review, drafting of basic contracts, reviewing loan documents Leases: review or negotiation of leases, landlord/tenant issues Small claims litigation (where amount in dispute does not exceed $8,000)
Time required:	Pro bono services through this program are limited to ten (10) hours unless the attorney and his/her firm agree to a separate, further representation outside of this program. If the applicant’s legal issue cannot reasonably be resolved in this time period, the application will be returned with an explanation that it exceeds the scope of this program. Each volunteer attorney will have the client sign his/her own engagement letter, specifying the limited scope of the engagement. The Public Service Committee can provide sample limited scope engagement letters to any volunteer attorney who requests one.
Training:	No training is offered at this time.
How to volunteer:	Interested attorneys should send an email to SBLAP@schnader.com providing their name, email address and the categories for which they would like to volunteer.