Author: Legal Services Food Hub

Maine Hub Reaches Hundreds of Farmers at Agricultural Trades Show

Posted on January 22,2016

The Maine Legal Food Hub was proud to be part of the 75th Annual Maine Agricultural Trades Show held in January at the Augusta Civic Center. Hub network attorneys and other experts presented 10 workshops for farmers on topics ranging from choosing a legal structure for a farm business, to employment issues, food safety, and farm transition. Thirteen unique presenters connected with over 100 farmers, including many seasoned and aspiring producers.

Two additional sessions gave farmers an opportunity to meet one-on-one with Hub staff and network lawyers. The message to farmers: there are many ways to accomplish farm-related goals, but there are no off-the-shelf solutions. Every farm has unique assets and challenges, so it’s crucial to include an attorney as part of the farm’s advisory team.

In addition to workshops, Hub volunteers reached hundreds more farmers through the information at our exhibition table. Although many of the folks who stopped by had not heard about the project previously, the positive response from everyone we talked to was energizing! There’s clearly a need for the Hub’s core service: matching farmers, food entrepreneurs, and food-system organizations with network lawyers to provide pro bono legal assistance.

 

Jubali Juice Seeks Legal Assistance with Contract Formation, Investment Terms, and Partnership Structuring

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Background: Jubali Juice produces organic juices, smoothies, tea infusions, nut milks, and cleanses for health-conscious consumers. Jubali Juice was founded with the goal of making the highest quality products while also respecting the environment and giving back to the community. Jubali Juice uses locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. They also work with schools and hospitals in their commitment to local communities and participate in a carbon-offset program to be more sustainable.

Legal Need: Jubali Juice came to the Legal Food Hub with three distinct legal needs: drafting an exclusivity agreement with a national restaurant chain, revising an investor term sheet, and restructuring a partnership agreement.

 Relationship: The Legal Food Hub matched Jubali Juice with an attorney at Nixon Peabody in Boston to address its legal needs.

Southeastern Massachusetts Livestock Association Receives Assistance with Formation of New Non-Profit Entity

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Background:  Southeastern Massachusetts Livestock Association (SEMALA) is a nonprofit organization comprised of farmers and local food advocates dedicated to addressing problems facing livestock farmers in southeastern New England. SEMALA was formed after the local slaughterhouse closed in 2007 and its members identified the need for a local animal processing facility. As such, SEMALA seeks to build and operate a new USDA-inspected slaughterhouse and processing facility in Westport, MA. This facility will primarily service southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and eastern Connecticut.

In addition, SEMALA is working with local educational institutions to develop curricula involving the processing of animals and value-added products and to involve students in studying the economic impacts of this facility on their community.

Legal Need:  SEMALA contacted the Legal Food Hub seeking to form a new nonprofit entity.

The Relationship:  The Legal Food Hub matched SEMALA with lawyers from Ropes & Gray who helped create a new nonprofit entity so that the association can continue to plan for a new slaughterhouse facility.

Legal Food Hub Participants Compete in Challenge Weekend

Posted on November 29,2015

The weekend before Thanksgiving, ten teams competed to win the first ever Maine Farm, Fish, and Food Innovation Challenge. Two farms receiving assistance through the Legal Food Hub – The Farming Artists and Frinklepod Farm – pitched their creative and sustainable local farming businesses.  Both of these innovative businesses are growing healthful foods and working to scale up local production.

This high-energy weekend had three big goals. First, to transform Maine into the sustainable food production engine for New England… and beyond. Second, to incentivize new businesses that bring more value to local farmers and fishermen. And, finally, to craft food business models that open new ways of getting our food from farm and sea to plate, while baking in social and environmental values.

The Hub was proud to be part of this weekend. We helped teams as they workshopped their business ideas. One of the teams – the New Beet Market – is now receiving legal assistance through the Hub. The weekend illustrated the importance and value of the Legal Food Hub. More and more farmers, food entrepreneurs, and food-related organizations working to grow a socially and environmentally responsible food system are receiving assistance through the Hub, getting trainings on critical legal issues, and connecting with myriad other individuals and organizations helping to grow our community-based food system in Maine.

Frinklepod Farm and the New Beet Market tied for second place. Read more about all the winners here. The Hub congratulates everyone that competed during the weekend. It proved a valuable experience for all teams to receive technical assistance and focus intensively on their businesses.

Legal Services Food Hub Launches First Annual Report

Posted on September 13,2015

To celebrate our first year, we’ve just launched a special, interactive year-in-review website.

Click here to learn more about our work providing pro bono legal services for farmers, food entrepreneurs, and the organizations that support them in Maine and Massachusetts.

New Roots Farm Receives Legal Assistance to Form Cooperative

Posted on September 5,2015

Background: Several refugee Somali Bantu farmers, who currently farm individually, are working to form an agricultural cooperative. The purpose of the cooperative is to allow them to leverage their resources by working together rather than separately. They hope to gain better access to farmland and to share that land, equipment, and marketing.  Each farmer currently grows diversified produce and has an interest in livestock production. Several area organizations have been helping these new American farmers begin to thrive in their new country.

Legal Need: Forming a cooperative takes a lot of time and effort. The challenge is even greater for a community of new American farmers who are not yet fluent in English. Through their own determination and key help from others, they drafted bylaws and articles of incorporation.  But they needed an attorney to review all these documents.

The Relationship:  Through their cooperative mentor, the farmers came to the Legal Food Hub to ensure that the documents they had worked together to draft for their new venture were all in order. The Legal Food Hub matched New Roots Cooperative Farm with a skilled attorney at Pierce Atwood, who was more than happy to help this remarkable group of new Americans get their cooperative off the ground.

Seaweed Snack Company Comes to Hub to Protect Trademark

Posted on August 27,2015

Background: Tara Treichel had the idea of starting an innovative seaweed company in Maine, offering kelp snacks and other seaweed products. Thus was born SeaMade. Tara aims to serve health-conscious consumers by providing education and convenient access to seaweed through tasty foods and other seaweed products. SeaMade is committed to socially responsible business and environmental sustainability and will donate a percentage of profits to ocean conservation.

Legal Need: Tara wanted to make sure her brand was protected. She came to the Legal Food Hub with questions about her trademark.

The Relationship:  The Legal Food Hub matched Tara with a small, dynamic firm in Portland, Maine—Opticliff Law.  The firm’s pro bono legal assistance has helped launch Tara’s product on firm legal footing.

Elizabeth Boepple

Posted on July 17,2015

The first two things noticeable about Beth Boepple (pronounced “BEP-lee”) are her high wattage smile and her clear, relaxing voice. She comes by her impeccable speech habits from her parents: her father was head of the UVM Theatre Department for many years and her mother became a speech pathologist. The smile is likely fed from love of her brand of legal work, which she pursues in Maine at the law firm BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC. Previously, Beth was an attorney at Lambert Coffin. While there, she and her partners pioneer a food and farm section in their practice. “Our goal is to get one started in the Maine Bar Association as well,” she says enthusiastically.

At a recent UVM summit on food security and food systems, Beth was often seen engaged in thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and academics concerned with regional food and farm issues. Over dinner one night with a community garden/food sovereignty researcher from Johannesburg, South Africa and a food pantry/food safety analyst and soon-to-be U.S. General Accounting Office analyst, Beth shared experiences and listened carefully when talk turned to policy issues that intersect with the practical.

Whether on the international, national, or local level, Beth explains her comfort with the details of food purveyance:

“Just prior to attending law school as an older student, I partnered on one of the first farm-to-table restaurants in Vermont. We saw it all—when you bypass the bigger corporate food suppliers, you are faced with how to get seafood from the boat to the chef and still keep it as fresh and economical as possible! That process would be repeated with other local and specialty food purveyors—I still remember the mushroom deals. All the intervening transactions with local producers really fueled my dedication to help farmers and the New England local food industry with their legal needs.”

Beth has a robust law practice. Amongst other areas, she focuses on business entity formation, especially for farm and food businesses. She also works in real estate and permitting and licensing—a routine part of a farm-and-food practice.

Why does she volunteer for the Legal Food Hub for work she does anyway?

“It is challenging sometimes, as all lawyers know, to make time for pro bono work. It can take on a life of its own and eat up a lot of time. Work for the Maine CLF Legal Food Hub, however, struck me as a way to do good and do it in a field that is my passion. It was a no-brainer to volunteer!”

Jon Klavens

Posted on May 15,2015

 Jon Klavens and his dedicated group of attorneys are no stranger to lending their talents for good. Their unique law firm was founded on the very idea of representing businesses with an environmental or other social mission.

Serving as pro bono counsel to the Dorchester Community Food Co-op has been rewarding, fun, and fits with their professional goals. “The Co-op has managed to put together phenomenal local programs that are not only educational but allow people to buy locally grown food,” says Klavens.

Klavens and his colleagues have strong ties to New England and he says that they are “passionate about the idea of bringing local, healthy food to the Boston area.” In fact, Klavens Law Group doesn’t stop there. Their passion for local food spreads throughout Massachusetts, with an attorney from their office working on a grocery co-op in Amherst.

Finding meaning in legal work wasn’t always so reachable. Klavens went to law school with the idea of pursuing environmental and social goals through the law. Working in a conventional law firm as an environmental, and then corporate, lawyer provided excellent training but didn’t quite bring about that fulfillment. “I felt that there were so many missed opportunities to do proactive good. Since I’ve become a business lawyer with an environmental and social focus, it’s been very empowering.”

Now, Klavens and his law group offer their expertise doing things business lawyers normally do – helping ventures get formed, financed, do business with customers, engage in mergers and acquisitions – but they do it almost exclusively with for-profit and nonprofit ventures that have environmental or other social goals and missions.

And while buying and eating local food is a passion, Klavens is aware, personally, that we can’t all grow it ourselves. “We have some gardeners in our practice – not me – but we support it as much as we can.”

Klavens sees the good the Dorchester Community Food Co-op will have on the people of Boston. “They’re a very dynamic group that has already achieved a tremendous amount of good by raising awareness of food issues.”

Nonprofit Community Kitchen Receives Legal Assistance for Entity Formation and Employment Contracts

Posted on March 24,2015

Background:  Commonwealth Kitchen (CK), which operates Boston’s only shared-use commercial kitchen and culinary business incubator, currently supports about 40 food entrepreneurs.  CK provides access to fully-equipped kitchen facilities for hourly rental on a membership basis combined with technical support, training, oversight, and guidance for wide range of wholesale and retail start-up and emerging food businesses. Since 2009, CK has graduated 28 businesses into a mix of retail, wholesale and contract manufacturing operations, creating well over 300 new permanent jobs.

Legal Need:  When CK realized that it needed to fulfill a variety of legal needs in order to fulfill its mission of supporting our local food entrepreneurs, it sought assistance from the Legal Food Hub on questions about tax-deductible charitable gifts, insurance premiums, for-profit and non-profit entity formation, and employment and contract law.

The Relationship:  Through the Legal Food Hub, CLF matched CK with several skilled attorneys from Nixon Peabody and Goulston & Storrs to cover all of their legal questions.  “CLF’s Legal Food Hub has been an invaluable partner for [Commonwealth Kitchen] and a fantastic resource for the businesses we serve.  They’ve connected us with tremendous legal expertise on everything from basic business entity formation and City permitting issues to complex tax and equity investment structuring, and even assistance with hiring and labor issues,” said Executive Director Jen Faigel. “They’re creative and incredibly responsive, and a terrific partner for any small food business who needs any sort of legal help to expand their operations and serve more customers.”

Nicole Riley

Posted on February 15,2015

 Growing up in a rural community in Maine, attorney Nicole Riley came by her appreciation for hard work naturally. “I feel like there’s some sort of New England grit. People are really supportive about the small farms around here.”

Working with the fledgling Dorchester Community Food Co-op was a way to both reconnect with small farmers, and offer some expertise. As a real estate lawyer at Goodwin Procter LLP, Nicole has offered the Co-op much-needed advice and assistance on the inevitable challenges that arise with trying to find the right space for such a unique operation.

This was the first time Nicole has volunteered with the Legal Food Hub, and she considers herself lucky to have been matched with the Co-op. “I feel sad for people who don’t love food. I love to cook and it brings me great joy. Even if it’s terrible, you at least have a great story.”

Nicole knows the value of a little help from an expert. She and her husband have recently started their own vegetable garden, with frequent advice from her mother. “The internet is not as helpful as you’d expect!”

The satisfaction Nicole feels over offering her services for the Food Hub isn’t just about healthy food, however. Nicole worked as a waitress for six years in a number of places around Boston, the last job at a little place called “Cheers.”

“It was a good job to have in college, and gave me great life skills. I value the people who work hard in the food-service industry.”

Nicole is pleased to have offered her expertise, experience, and knowledge to the Co-op and looks forward to picking up some more tips from the experts when they open their doors in 2016.

Written by Danielle Vick

Boston Public Market Receives Advice on Lease Negotiations

Posted on December 14,2014

Background:  The Boston Public Market (BPM), slated to open in July 2015, will house over 40 permanent, year-round vendors who will sell locally produced items such as farm fresh produce, meat and poultry, cheese, fish and shellfish, bread and baked goods, flowers, and an assortment of specialty and prepared foods.  While Boston has more than twenty seasonal, open-air farmers’ markets, the city still lacks a year-round central marketplace. This will be Boston’s first venue that serves as a low-cost outlet for Massachusetts farmers and supports local food entrepreneurs.

Legal Need:  Vendor selection for the Boston Public Market is an ongoing, robust, multi-stage process that involves a variety of stakeholders, including BPM staff, industry experts, community members and national consultants.  When BPM realized that every vendor required an individual application and lease agreement that included each vendor’s stall design, it contacted the Legal Food Hub for legal assistance with drafting these lease agreements.

The Relationship: Staff at the Legal Food Hub matched the Boston Public Market with skilled real estate attorneys at Nixon Peabody. “We’re so grateful that the Legal Food Hub was able to match us with Nixon Peabody,” said Liz Morningstar, CEO of the Boston Public Market. “By connecting farmers and food entrepreneurs in Massachusetts with expert legal advice, the Legal Food Hub allows these small food businesses to expand, professionalize, and focus on their real work—growing and producing fresh local food.”

“We’re thrilled to be helping the Boston Public Market negotiate leases with vendors from around Massachusetts and New England, allowing these local food businesses to sell directly to customers in Boston,” said Jennifer Simon Lento, an Associate at Nixon Peabody. “Participating in the Legal Food Hub is a great way for the legal community to contribute to the growth of our local food economy.”

Fresh Food Generation, LLC Creates Investor Term Sheets with Attorney Support

Posted on November 11,2014

Background: Earlier this year, two young Boston entrepreneurs were in the thick of starting a food business called Fresh Food Generation (FFG). Their mission was to cook and serve on-the-go meals made with ingredients sourced from local farms out of a food truck in low-income neighborhoods of Boston. Through this venture, the duo aimed to increase access to healthy, affordable, cooked foods for populations with limited access to quality foods and with high rates of diabetes and obesity.

Legal Need:  FFG launched a successful Kickstarter campaign and raised more than half of what they needed to get their first food truck equipped and out on the road. When they had two investors at the table who were willing to supply the rest of the financing if FFG crafted the equity financing structure, co-founders Cassandria Campbell and Jackson Renshaw recognized they needed professional legal help to do so properly.

The Relationship:  Cassandria and Jackson heard about the Hub through their partners at Commonwealth Kitchen, a local culinary business incubator (also a Hub participant). Through the Legal Food Hub, CLF matched these two young entrepreneurs with a set of skilled attorneys at WilmerHale specializing in equity finance agreements. With this legal assistance, the team now has the appropriate foundational documents to help launch a strong and successful business. “The lawyers have been really responsive,” said Cassandria. “We take our work very seriously, and we needed people on the other end to take it seriously as well. They have done a great job.”

Elizabeth Ryland, a WilmerHale attorney who worked with FFG, agreed that the process went smoothly.  “It was very enjoyable to work with them,” she said.  “We work with a lot of start ups, and [FFG] has the same needs as any start up.  It’s a great opportunity to work with people who are active in the community, people with interesting ideas that might just be smaller scale than what we normally work with. At the end of the day, it is always great to work with passionate founders.”

“I like being able to donate time and work with people who have a dream and a vision and want to do good in the world.”

Rich Cavanaugh

Posted on October 15,2014

Rich Cavanaugh is the founder of Common Grow, LLC, in Orange, Massachusetts, and a graduate of The Farm School. Rich joined the Hub network in July of 2014 and has generously taken on three cases so far. We asked him a few questions to learn more about why he got involved.

What kind of law do you practice? Have you always focused in this area?
Over the last two decades, my practice consisted mainly of civil litigation and counseling nonprofit and for-profit corporations in the firm I helped establish in Lowell, Massachusetts. Two years ago, my wife and I participated in a year-long practical farming program at The Farm School in central Massachusetts. That experience confirmed our desire to shift gears and build a life more closely connected to the land. As a result, I formed Common Grow, LLC, which provides legal and land use services to protect and cultivate the beauty and purpose of farmland in our communities. The scope of those legal services include business organization and governance, real estate transactions, farm succession planning, regulatory compliance, and other areas of interest to those in the agricultural sector.

What size is your firm?
Right now, I’m enjoying being a solo-practitioner.

Why did you decide to volunteer time and expertise to the Hub?
The focus of my new practice aligns perfectly with the mission of the Legal Food Hub, and I feel fortunate to be able to participate at this early stage of the program’s development.

Without providing any confidential information about any of your cases, can you generally describe some of the issues that you have worked on through your Hub cases?
So far, I have assisted a young farmer who was facing eviction from land that he was renting due to actions of a third party. I have also been assisting a newly formed, agricultural nonprofit draft its governing documents and obtain its tax-exempt status, as well as counseling an older farmer who is seeking to step back from the day-to-day responsibilities of her farm while also helping to ensure the long-term viability of the farm and her retirement.

What have been the most challenging and most rewarding parts of the cases you have taken on?
The most rewarding part for me is that I can help those who are committed and talented enough to grow food that is better tasting and better for us and who grow it in a way that is better for our land and helps foster community. The greatest challenge is that many people growing food do it more for the rewarding life it brings than for its monetary rewards. It remains a challenge for farmers to grow in an ecologically sustainable way while also doing so in an economically sustainable way. My hat is off to those who are succeeding at both. We are all the better off for it.

Is there anything else about your experience working with the Hub, farmers and/or food businesses that you’d like to share?
One of the aspects of the Legal Food Hub that I find compelling is that it allows an attorney to provide pro bono services to those who truly deserve the assistance. The Hub takes the laboring oar in interviewing the applicants and helping to find a good fit between lawyer and client. As an attorney looking to provide services to those in our food economy, the Hub provides an easy way to connect with those who could best use some help.