3L Arianne Hennis got a taste of what it’s like to help a startup build a strong foundation through the USC Gould School of Law Small Business Clinic.
Hennis chose the Small Business Clinic for exposure to transactional law and found herself working with Safiya Adatia, a recent USC Marshall School of Business graduate developing BollyStep, an app that teaches Bollywood dance steps to participants in South Asian weddings. With guidance from professor and clinic director Michael Chasalow, Hennis says she gained the confidence to manage a client and multiple law school demands — and realized she could take these skills into practice as a litigator.
“I gained substantive skills, learned time management, and I earned academic credit. Where else could I gain experience like this?” Hennis says. “Law school lasts only three years, and it’s difficult to (acquire tangible skills) and gain real-world experience while you’re a student. At the Small Business Clinic, you get that attention and focus and learn to work independently.”
BollyStep is a virtual dance learning platform enabling asynchronous teaching of Bollywood dances to participants in South Asian weddings. Adatia, a Bollywood dancer herself for more than 10 years, remembers the frustration of trying to teach dances to wedding participants located all over the world in advance of a wedding. When the time came to create a legal foundation for her business, her mentors at Marshall suggested the Small Business Clinic.
“As a startup founder, there are so many moving parts, but Arianne was great at keeping me on track and accountable,” Adatia says. “I knew she would be there to decode (legal language) and help me understand what I need to do. She would go through documents paragraph by paragraph and (help me) fill them out in a timely fashion. It was a big weight off my shoulders.”
After going over options with Hennis and Chasalow, Adatia decided on the C Corp business structure and because the business plans to accept outside funding and Adatia is living in a different state, to form in Delaware – often the most cost-effective choice for business owners who want to preserve different options in the future structure of the business, Chasalow says.
Chasalow was impressed with Hennis’ resilience through the complex process of drafting and modifying documents, presenting choices to the client, and meeting deadlines.
“Sometimes the challenge is … supporting what the client wants but also guiding them into what’s possible, realistic and makes sense legally,” he says. “Arianne had that perfect balance between those elements. She didn’t seize control and was good at both empowering and guiding (the client).”
Hennis says she appreciated the opportunity to make her own decisions and draft documents under Chasalow’s guidance, and to help a client whittle down big picture ideas to actionable steps.
“I was able to apply new skills and know that there was someone there to support me,” she says. “Safiya’s idea is very exciting, and I understood the theory of it, but was able to add value in helping her understand what it means in practice. I enjoyed working together in partnership and collaboration.”
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