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Abstract:
The homeless community is diverse, and the causes of homelessness are complex. As part of a Symposium entitled, "Representing the Poor and Homeless: Innovations in Advocacy Tackling Homelessness through Economic Self-sufficiency," the author discusses the challenges faced by those who attempt to address the needs of homeless people. This essay focuses on policies and innovations in income creation for homeless people. The author advocates for integrated approaches to homelessness prevention and policies that combine housing, income, and social services. In this regard, the author explores economic self-sufficiency through such innovations as microenterprise development, a rapidly growing and innovative strategy in advocacy for the poor, homeless and other persons in need such as dislocated workers and domestic violence survivors. The author also examines innovative job training in the context of supportive housing and/or supportive services and public policy incentives such as tax credits to sustain homelessness advocacy. Finally, the author concludes that an economic self-sufficiency strategy such as microenterprise development is as valuable for homeless people as it is for others when coupled with housing and other supportive services.

Homeless, self-sufficiency, poverty, microenterprise, entrepreneurship, affordable housing, job training, economic development

Abstract:
Drawing upon the author's experience with a law school Small Business Clinic, this article claims that business law transactional practice is inherently interdisciplinary, involving collaboration from various disciplines, including law, business, accounting, finance, engineering, computer science, and the social sciences. The author explores the need for legal assistance for entrepreneurs and other small businesses, especially for women and minority business owners, and discusses the recent rise in small business clinics and community economic development (CED) clinical programs, which the author attributes to a trend away from government entitlements and toward personal responsibility and economic self-sufficiency, the failure of the litigation paradigm to eradicate poverty, the need to broaden the clinical curriculum, and the availability of funding from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and other public and private sources.

The article employs the George Washington Intra-University Consortium in Business, Law and Engineering to examine the systems required to sustain interdisciplinary collaborative transactional work. It touts the pedagogical benefits of this context for teaching law students the necessary professional skills and values, and in particular the lawyer's professional responsibility for advancing social justice. It highlights the incentives and rewards of interdisciplinary teaching and practice in the transactional area, but also discusses the administrative, financial, cultural, and ethical impediments. The article concludes with an overview of the ethical issues involved in multidisciplinary, multi-jurisdictional small business law practice.

interdisciplinary collaboration, small business, community economic development (CED), law school clinics, legal education, micro-enterprise, minority entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary transactional practice, pro bono legal services

Abstract:
This Article, part of a symposium entitled "Lawyering for a New Democracy," explores current issues related to the changing roles of public interest lawyers engaged in Community Economic Development (CED) in a new democracy. After discussing current issues and trends in CED practice, the author concludes that CED is inherently privatized and is becoming more so with the national emphasis on economic self-sufficiency. The author provides lessons from law school clinical practice of enhanced strategic collaborations and highlights current trends and issues involving technology, leadership development, community organizing, asset accumulation, and social capital. Furthermore, leadership development and community organizing are based on a thorough understanding of the economic culture, social capital, and the relationships between assets and race. One particular program at the George Washington University Law School Small Business Clinic (GWUSBC) involved one of the clinic's clients, SiNGA, Inc., a nonprofit jobs-training program in the fashion industry. The author also describes how federally-funded programs, like the Community Renewal and New Markets Initiative of 2000, can be used to encourage private investment and economic development in communities. These federally-funded programs often include economic incentives such as tax credits. Given the opportunities in the new democracy, the author concludes that there is an enhanced role for CED activist lawyers to play in the social, political, and economic dimensions of community revitalization.

Community economic development, public interest law, small business clinic, entrepreneurship, new democracy, privatization, transactional legal practice, business law, George Washington University Small Business Clinic

Abstract:
As the 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Speaker and as a participant in the 2004 - 2005 Seventh Annual Public Interest Law Speakers Series, entitled "Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers," the author explores how Dr. King's legacy demands that lawyers work to abolish poverty and homelessness. Relying on her experiences as a Professor of Clinical Law at The George Washington University Law School, as the former Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, and as a member of the ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, the author argues a need to change the public policy focus and that poverty should be addressed as a human rights issue. In the way that Dr. King was an advocate for economic justice, lawyers should advance the interest of low-income people. By embracing economic justice as a cause, lawyers are able to pursue legal reforms and practices that promote economic justice.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Public Interest Law, poverty, homelessness, housing, low-income, economic justice, human rights, civil rights, legal reforms, community economic development, economic reforms, law and policy, activist lawyers, George Washington University Law School