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KUNC is here to keep you up-to-date on the news about COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — Colorado's response to its spread in our state and its impact on Coloradans.

Law Firms Step Up To Help Small Businesses Navigate COVID-19 Crisis

Small business owners can now get free legal aid through an Idaho and a national program.
Sean Pyle
/
Flickr
Small business owners can now get free legal aid through an Idaho and a national program.
Small business owners can now get free legal aid through an Idaho and a national program.
Credit Sean Pyle / Flickr
/
Flickr
Small business owners can now get free legal aid through an Idaho and a national program.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced small businesses to deal with a lot of challenges they don’t normally confront.

“We have dealt with everything from HR issues, what to do when there are employee furloughs that are required, how to navigate different loan assistance programs, says Tara Malek, with the Idaho law firm  Smith + Malek. “We’ve even talked to folks about contracting issues that they have with vendors. How do they negotiate or deal with vendors if there’s no revenue coming in to business?” 

says Malek. “We’ve even talked to folks about contracting issues that they have with vendors. How do they negotiate or deal with vendors if there’s no revenue coming in to business?” 

Malek’s firm is joining up with a national program where lawyers give free consults to small businesses to help navigate those challenges.

“Hiring an attorney is not always feasible because of the cost,” Malek says. “And so small businesses sometimes struggle with ‘when do I reach out for help?'” 

Nationally, more than nine out of 10 businesses surveyed after the fact report that the consultation is helpful. 

The nonprofit Lawyers for Good Government has already adapted this model in New York. It’s partnering with a local nonprofit to help frontline health care workers create advance directives and wills. 

“It’s the same processes that we’ve used here with local businesses,” says Sterling Howard, who’s with Lawyers for Good Government. “There’s a local nonprofit that has the expertise to do this kind of work and to manage volunteers to do it, but maybe they don’t have the ability to run the whole program like we do.” 

The national organization says the legal consultations have been popular, but the challenge is resources and time, since attorneys are volunteers. 

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.
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