Widener Law, Dauphin County Bar Association starting law firm incubator program

July 03--Widener Law in Harrisburg and the Dauphin County Bar Association will be working together to launch an incubator program this fall for new lawyers looking to start a solo practice or small law firm.

The two groups are taking applications from interested lawyers who graduated in 2014 from Widener Law, according to a news release on the program.

The two or three lawyers accepted to the one-year program will receive office space at the Dauphin County Bar Association on North Front Street in Harrisburg, and the association also will provide networking opportunities.

Widener Law Associate Clinical Professor J. Palmer Lockard II also will lead training sessions for the attorneys in the program and serve as a mentor, according to the news release. The attorneys also will have computer and printing equipment as part of the program.

They will have to pay for malpractice insurance and, during the program, do 100 hours of pro bono legal work, which Mid Penn Legal Services will coordinate. They'll also be encouraged to do "low bono" work.

"This program is dynamic because it not only gives the new attorneys legal experience and business skills, but it adds affordable legal services to the community," Widener Law Interim Co-Dean Robyn L. Meadows, who oversees the Harrisburg campus, said in the news release. "We hope it will build a lasting appreciation for the importance of assisting the underserved, no matter where their careers take them."

Interested lawyers must have passed the Pennsylvania bar exam to apply and that application is due by Oct. 1.

The two or three lawyers selected will do training sessions in November and December and aim to open their law offices in January. Lawyers in the program will be tasked with marketing and advertising their law firms, according to the release.

For more information or to get an application, contact Lockard at 717-541-3924 or [email protected].

___

(c)2014 The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.)

Visit The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.) at www.pennlive.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services