Skadden Fellowship

Job Opportunity: Skadden Foundation Law Fellowship up to 24-month term with the nonprofit Center for Community Based Enterprise (C2BE), Detroit, MI, c2be.org, as the Host Organization.

Fellowship Compensation: $57,000/year. Fellowship benefits include LRAP (education loan forgiveness program for public interest work), alumni network, fellow advisor and conferences events.

Application Due Date: Applications will need to be submitted to the Skadden Foundation by September 9, 2022, but since the application requires a collaborative submission between the applicant and C2BE as the host organization, applicants should reach out to C2BE as soon as possible, but no later than July 2022.

Center for Community Based Enterprise (C2BE):  C2BE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to build a sustainable, more equitable and inclusive living-wage local economy, by developing a cooperating network of worker-owned businesses and increasing the number of worker owners throughout Metro Detroit, and especially in underserved neighborhoods, to both build community wealth and overcome income inequality.

C2BE works in two main areas: (1) providing technical assistance to community-based entrepreneurs who want to start or have an existing businesses and who wish to develop the business as a cooperative, worker-owned enterprise; and (2) working with owners of existing businesses who wish to sell their businesses to their employees.  

Given the "Silver Tsunami," i.e., the wave of baby-boomers who own small to medium-sized businesses and will be retiring within the next 10-15 years, there is a tremendous opportunity to create cooperative, worker-owned businesses. The conversion work is primarily transactional, but almost all of our client businesses require legal help in structuring their companies to fit the worker-ownership business model that bests fits their needs – i.e., Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) or more traditional worker cooperatives. We also provide assistance in the more economically-focused areas of business development, either directly through our limited staff, or with economic development partners

“Client Population” and “Focus”:  The “Focus” of this position is to enable, develop and support worker ownership and a network of such companies particularly among, people of color, low or moderate income or those returning from incarceration in Detroit and Southeast Michigan, whether start-ups or existing businesses interested in converting to worker ownership. (“Client Population”).

Job Responsibilities: The Fellow will perform the following work under the supervision of C2BE’s executive director and senior attorneys in service to the “Client Population,” including but not limited to:

·      Provide legal advice on entity type, legal compliance and drafting governance, transactional and similar documents for neighborhood start-up businesses and existing businesses converting to worker ownership;

• Learn to employ various types of worker ownership methods that best suit the project’s circumstances;
• Research, curate, draft and publish educational resources and template documents to assist the Client Population on Focus areas;
• Develop materials for and provide worker ownership rights, responsibilities and participation education for worker-owned companies employing or seeking to employ Client Population;
• Host outreach events to seek out Focus projects and Client Population participation;
• Participate in due diligence and research to locate appropriate target companies;
• Conduct educational and training sessions in the community and in collaboration with local business incubators, economic development, and community organizations;
• Facilitate community events to share best practice and problem solving;
• Advocate policy development to support worker ownership.

Job Requirements:  You are eligible to apply, if on that date, you are in the fall of your final year of law school (generally 3L year), an LL.M. program, a clerkship, or the final year of a graduate program in which you were enrolled concurrently with your law degree. Law students graduating in the winter or attending law school part-time should apply in their final year, which may be their 4th year. You may still apply during an LL.M. or a clerkship even if you worked between graduating from law school and starting the LL.M. or clerkship. 

The candidate should also be interested in working to build community wealth and overcoming income inequality in Metro Detroit.  Legal knowledge or business experience in the areas of business formation, business transactions, securities, corporate structures, intellectual property, cooperative and/or labor law area plus. Bar admission in Michigan will be needed, if not admitted in Michigan, but admission can be obtained during the application process.

Term: September 2023 - August 2025

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: $57,000/year

Required work authorization: United States

How To Apply: As the Skadden Fellowship application process requires coordination between the applicant and the host organization, any interested applicant should contact C2BE as early as possible by emailing Michael Friedman at mjfriedman@c2be.org to discuss more about   C2BE, your interests and skill sets, and how to work with C2BE to design your Fellowship project.

Anyone interested in applying should also go to the Skadden Foundation website -- https://www.skaddenfellowships.org/application -- to read about the application process and download relevant materials.  If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Michael Friedman, or the Skadden contacts listed on the website.

If you are interested in applying for this Fellowship, download the application and certification pages from the website, fill them out and assemble the documents in the order indicated in the instructions. Email the three PDF files of your application to skadden.foundation@skadden.com, by September 9, 2022. 

The following items must be submitted with your application:

• Answers to four essay questions, each with a 400 word limit
• A commitment letter from your host organization. 
• Two recommendations -- one by a faculty member (either academic or clinical); and one by someone who has supervised your work. Preferably, this letter will be written by a lawyer who has overseen your legal work. 
• Your law school transcript. This may be either official or unofficial, as long as the scan is legible.
• A copy of your resume. Please ensure there are no significant gaps in your resume — Skadden would rather see paid or volunteer experience, even if you consider it irrelevant. 
• Two certifications, one to be signed by the applicant and one to be filled out and signed by the host organization.
• You may attach limited additional material that relates directly to your project, but it is not necessary to do so. Additional recommendations are not allowed and will be discarded.

Application Deadline

The application and all supporting documentation must be submitted to the Skadden Foundation by September 9, 2022.  However, as the application must include information about the jointly developed project you will be working on with C2BE, it is recommended that those interested in applying reach out to C2BE as soon as possible, and no later than July 2022.