Jake Herrel Helps Launch Transactional Pro Bono Initiative at Texas Law
November 05, 2021
Associate Jake Herrel recently helped launch the Small Business Wellness Project, a new transactional pro bono initiative of The Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program at The University of Texas School of Law. Having led pro bono projects as a Mithoff Pro Bono Scholar while in law school, he also participated as a supervising attorney in the program, which provides much needed legal assistance to low-income small business owners while providing students with transactional experience.
"The intake session provided an excellent opportunity for law students to sit down with a real 'client' and interview them about their business’s legal needs. The students then developed a plan to produce deliverables, to be presented at a follow-up exit session,” said Herrel.
"Client interviewing and polished soft skills are invaluable when it comes time to practice, and the follow-up deliverable component provided an opportunity for students to do substantial legal work," commented Herrel. "The small business owners and the law students all left at the end of the first evening happy and having learned so much. Transactional practice isn’t always the easiest to learn in a traditional classroom setting, so this is exactly the kind of transactional pro bono opportunity Texas Law students need."