A Law Firm You Will Love with Janelle Orsi Navigating the law in the US can be a daunting task. All too often, legal help is simply out of reach for most entrepreneurs and citizens who want to foster positive change in their community.  It can be trying, and even impossible, to get the legal help you need, let alone without breaking the bank. That’s where Oakland’s Sustainable Economies Law Center, or the “SELC”, enters the picture, with law workshops and weekend research events aimed at educating both legal and non-legal professionals and community members alike.   Our guest in this episode is Janelle Orsi, Founder and Executive Director of the SELC. Join Janelle and our own Amy Pearl, as they discuss a variety of topics, from worker-owned co-ops to legal training without law school.   Prepare to be inspired, legally speaking. Hosts Amy Pearl, Executive Director, Hatch Innovation Guests

Janelle Orsi, Director, Sustainable Economies Law Center

Janelle Orsi is a lawyer, advocate, writer, and cartoonist focused on cooperatives, the sharing economy, land trusts, shared housing, local currencies, and rebuilding the commons. She is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), which facilitates the growth of more sustainable and localized economies through education, research, and advocacy. Janelle has also worked in private law practice at the Law Office of Janelle Orsi, focusing on sharing economy law since 2008.

In this episode you’ll learn

1. The initiatives of the SELC and how they aim to positively change state laws in California.
2. The SELC program for legal training and apprenticeship.
3. Why they host “party-like” workshops to explain complex legal topics.
4. All about their fast-paced Research Explosion Day.
5. Why consumer education matters so much in the community capital ecosystem.
6. Why self-directed IRA accounts have great potential for community and economic development.

Links to Resources Mentioned

1. Hatch Innovation
2. Sustainable Economies Law Center
3. Research Explosion Day
4. ComCap 17 Program

Quotes

“Looking at consumers as the form of...securitization of financing.  In a way, consumers have the ability to remove the risk from investments, if they’re organized enough.  So that’s a piece of the ecosystem that I feel we need to pay more attention to”