Pertinent Perils

Prisere LLC. Deep rooted. Farsighted.

As I look forward to the achieving the goals set for my business in 2015, I am also taking time to pause, reflect and take stock of what has been accomplished to date.  One of the achievements of which I am most proud is that our law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP incorporated Prisere LLC as a limited liability company in the State of Delaware and registered it as a foreign company to do business in other states. Stroock’s very talented intellectual property attorneys also successfully registered trademarks for Prisere, its tagline and its logo. Stroock provided pro bono legal services to Prisere LLC after we were matched by the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project (NELP) of the New York City Bar. The City Bar launched the project in 2003 to help entrepreneurs with legal services to get their businesses started on as sound a footing as possible. The project provides volunteer attorneys who guide small businesses through such matters as incorporation and tax issues, contracts and agreements, commercial lease negotiations, copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Volunteer attorneys also offer presentations and legal clinics at community-based organizations on issues of concern to micro-entrepreneurs. To date, NELP has partnered with more than 100 law firms, 25 corporate legal departments, and 30 community-based organizations to assist more than 14,000 clients through the provision of brief services, direct representation, legal clinics, and community presentations.

I was particularly delighted to be connected with the team at Stroock, not just for their impressive legal talent, but also for their leadership in providing critical legal pro bono services to small businesses in response to national disasters. I had benefited once before from Stroock’s project for small business disaster relief when, after 9-11, I participated in mediation with the landlord of my office building to resolve a dispute. The dispute centered around treatment of the rent for the days when the office was closed after we were evacuated. The issue was successfully resolved, as Stroock had set up a mediation program to address these inevitable disputes in a fair and efficient manner.

The business of Prisere LLC grew from my book after leaders of the New Orleans Small Business Development Centers urged me to find a way to work on enabling disaster-resilient small businesses as a full-time effort, not just part-time book promotion. And, in another of life’s unusual coincidences, I also referenced Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in that very book – published years before I had my first meeting with them. In Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery, second edition, I wrote (page xvii) of how government disaster relief programs often harm small businesses more than help them. As an example, I quoted the Battery Park City Broadsheet (February 27 – March 13, 2002 edition), the community newspaper of the residential  neighborhood in the shadow of the World Trade Center, which wrote about the management of HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) funds for the post-9/11 recovery efforts:

HUD’s first allocation towards the recovery effort is $700 million, part of which is earmarked for small businesses. Unfortunately, what most small business owners have found is that receiving a piece of the $700 million is about as likely as holding a winning PowerBall ticket. From the Ground Up, an organization comprising more than 100 small businesses in Lower Manhattan, is dedicated to making the distribution of aid fair, adequate and easier to procure. Kevin Curnin, a lawyer with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, advised the group. He said agencies allocating financial aid in most cases have defined “small business” as having as many as 500 employees. “Five hundred is not small,” Curnin said. “This includes massive firms who have insurance. Put a big fish in a small pond and that big fish is going to take a disproportionate share of the resources. It is impractical and wrong…” Aid is not getting to the businesses that really need it, Mr. Curnin said. Many pizza parlors and shoe repair shops – businesses that Mr. Curnin argues make a neighborhood a neighborhood – did not have adequate insurance or a safety net that would allow them to survive being closed for months.”

I also included this quote from the Battery Park City Broadsheet in the first edition of the book, published in 2002. I never would have guessed that the year following publication of the book, the City Bar would establish its Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project through which, years later, I would be introduced to the Stroock team in person. Nor could I have anticipated the extraordinary work that Stroock would go on to do to help small businesses impacted by Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy. And now, thanks to Stroock’s efforts, Prisere has its trademarks and is building a platform for growth and social impact. So I look forward to 2015, as we build on all of our efforts.