Sound legal advice is essential for success in business and preventing costly troubles that can ruin an enterprise.  LegalCORPS assists low-income owners of small businesses with free, high-quality legal services.

LegalCORPS' knowledgeable legal volunteers lend a hand to low-income individuals as they start and grow their business in Minnesota.

Information on this page includes:

LegalCORPS' brief-advice legal clinics for small businesses
Full-representation assistance
Frequently asked questions
Others who can provide business advice
Requirements and Application form

 Legal issues facing a small business include:

• What legal form it should operate under
• Duties owners owe to each other
• Managing liability risks
• Taxation
• Contracts, and deals with other businesses
• Employment policies
• Real estate leases, acquisition and taxes
• Intellectual property (trademark, copyright, licenses)
• Government regulations
• Mergers and joint ventures
  

Brief Legal Advice

In-Person Sites

LegalCORPS volunteer lawyers provide brief, no-charge consultations (up to 30 minutes) to owners of small businesses at regular clinics. Their locations and times:

• St. Paul: From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Tuesday at the SCORE chapter office at 176 N. Snelling Avenue, Suite 300 [3rd floor of the Associated Bank Building at Selby & Snelling] in St. Paul.  (No appointment necessary; sign up at site for 30-minute session.)   Enter building's east entrance, by parking lot off Selby, take elevator to 3rd floor.  (Intellectual property questions? An expert on patents, copyrights and trademarks normally is available on the 1st Tuesday of each month.)
• Minneapolis: From 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, at the Small Business Center of the Minneapolis Central Library (300 Nicollet Mall, 2nd floor) (No appointment necessary; sign up at site for 30-minute session.)
  
• St. Louis Park: From 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Fridays of each month at the SCORE chapter office at Suite 103 of the Bremer Bank at 8800 Highway 7. To schedule one of three 30-minute sessions available at each clinic, call 952-938-4570 by 11 a.m. the preceding Thursday.
• St. Cloud: From noon to 2 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Small Business Development Center, 355 5th Ave. S (in the St. Cloud State Welcome Center).  To schedule a 30-minute session, call 320-308-4842 by the end of the work day the preceding Monday.
• Mankato: From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Small Business Development Center -- located in the Technology Plus Center at 1961 Premier Drive in Mankato. To schedule a 30-minute session, call 507-389-8875 by the end of the work day the preceding Monday.
• Rochester: From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the 2nd Tuesday and 4th Friday of each month at the Small Business Development Center -- located in the Heintz Center of the Rochester Community & Technical College, 1926 College View Road SE in Rochester.  To schedule a 30-minute session, call 507-285-7536 at least two days before a scheduled clinic.
  
  

NOTE: When you visit a drop-in clinic, before you can consult with a LegalCORPS volunteer lawyer, you will be required to fill out a form much like this.   Besides providing identifying information, you will need to sign the acknowledgement of the limits of the attorney-client relationship that the brief consultation will create.

Long-Distance Clinics (by video conference)

For low-income entrepreneurs located in areas with a lawyer population too small to sustain regular in-person sites,  LegalCORPS partners with regional Small Business Development Centers to provide regularly scheduled brief, no-charge consultations (up to 30 minutes) conducted by video conference.   Current sites and schedules are:

• Hutchinson: Long-distance clinics take place on the final Thursday of each month, at the Small Business Development Center office in the Ridgewater Business Development Center -- 980 2nd Ave. SE in Hutchinson.  To schedule a 30-minute session, call 507-537-7386 at least two days before a scheduled clinic.  (Clients will confer with volunteer business lawyers from a Target Corporation office in Minneapolis.)

If you are located far from any drop-in or long-distance clinic site, you can request a brief consultation by phone with a LegalCORPS volunteer lawyer.  (Note: In this process, a lawyer would call you; no lawyers would be available for immediate consultation.) 

You first will be asked to provide some information and acknowledge the limits of the attorney-client relationship that the brief-advice phone session would create. You can do so by e-mail using these instructions .  Alternatively, you can request -- either by e-mail at info@legalcorps.org or by calling 1-888-454-5267 (toll-free) or 612-752-6678 -- that a request/registration form be sent to you.

Full-Representation Assistance

To receive assistance from LegalCORPS' volunteer attorneys for more than brief legal advice, the owner of a small business in Minnesota must meet low-income guidelines, have a business plan, and have acquired adequate capital and taken other steps indicating the enterprise has potential for success.   LegalCORPS works closely with other organizations that provide advice and other assistance to small businesses,  so we can direct those who do not yet qualify for our volunteer attorneys' services to helpful resources.

Business owners who meet LegalCORPS eligibility requirements need to complete an application form (73 KB) (or Word version ) and return it to LegalCORPS for review, along with a $50 administrative fee (unless the applicant previously has requested and received a waiver of that fee).

LegalCORPS uses income guidelines from the federal Department of Health & Human Services to determine presumptive eligibility for applicants for full-representation assistance. To determine whether you would be likely to qualify, you can study the current income guidelines for the size of your household.   If an applicant's household income exceeds these guidelines, LegalCORPS might review the application for its suitability for pro bono (free) legal services on other grounds.

F.A.Q. 

Click here for Frequently Asked Questions by clients.

Others Who Can Provide Advice 

Sound legal advice is just one element organizations need to thrive.  LegalCORPS helps connect low-income owners of small businesses and nonprofit organizations with assistance in other important areas of nonprofit and business management support.   Here are some organizations that also assist small businesses and/or nonprofits.

General Eligibility Requirements (96 KB)

Income Guidelines 

Small Business Application (Word)
Small Business Application (73 KB)