The Business Innovations Legal Clinic at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law will host a free, two-hour course on community-based real estate development and joint ventures on Thursday, March 28. 

The event will be held from 6-8 p.m. in the student lounge on the second floor of Bowen Law School, 1201 McMath Ave. in Little Rock. The course also serves as the launch of the Business Innovation Legal Clinic’s “Access to Opportunity Handbook Series” for lawyers and community members, along with its first manual, “When David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.”

The discussion will feature a panel of four speakers with backgrounds in community-based development throughout the United States. The speakers include:

• Barry Mallin, a New York City attorney with decades of experience representing nonprofits in tax credit transactions. Mallin was the primary author of “When David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.”
• Christopher Jones, an Arkansas native serving as executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub and former executive director of the nationally-recognized Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston.
• Warwick Sabin, senior director of U.S. programs of the Rockefeller Foundation who developed numerous local projects, including the South on Main and Oxford American cluster in Downtown Little Rock and the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock.
• Kim Vu-Dinh, visiting professor and director of the Business Innovations Legal Clinic at Bowen, whose past experience includes commercial and residential tax-credit based development in New Orleans. Vu-Dinh served as the primary editor of “When David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.”

All four speakers will discuss the best practices in community-based real estate developments and their firsthand experiences with projects both in and outside of Arkansas. A question-and-answer session will follow, and each attendee will receive a free copy of “When David Partners with Goliath: A Joint Venture Manual for Community Developers.”

This free event is open to all attorneys, students, and members of the public. Attorneys can receive two hours of continuing legal education credit.

A complimentary meal will be provided by Ayo Foods, LLC, a worker-owned, new, local, business and client of the Business Innovations Legal Clinic. Please RSVP with the number of attendees.

The Business Innovations Legal Clinic provides high-quality, pro bono transactional legal counsel to small businesses and nonprofit organizations working in economic development, many of which would not be able to obtain legal assistance otherwise. This clinic is funded by a generous grant from the state’s Attorney General’s Office.