We're always cooking up pay-it-forward legal advice, action-oriented workshops, and happy hours with engaging conversations on how to build just and resilient local economies. And we don't only provide in-person events for you to connect with us, we provide online trainings and travel across the country to support grassroots economic empowerment. Don't miss out!
Please, help us get the word out about our upcoming events. Share with your friends or networks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn! If you're interested in an event, someone you know will probably be interested too. Share the love!
Find Sustainable Economies Law Center's events below!
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM PDT
Online via Zoom in Oakland, CAOnline Legal Cafe
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice, via Zoom, by appointment.
If you need advice about starting a worker-owned cooperative, converting an existing business into a cooperative, organizing a housing cooperative, founding a nonprofit or other social enterprise, please RSVP below! Here are some questions we will be prepared to answer:
-
Radical real estate law: How to form a housing cooperative, real estate cooperative, or nonprofit housing?
-
Legal formation for small businesses: What are the regulations and requirements to have your organization legally function?
-
Legal entity choice: Should your org be a for profit, non-profit, and which legal entity fits best with your vision?
-
Employment law: Whether you're an employer, employee, or a cooperative, we can answer questions on how to prevent or resolve issues?
-
Tax law: What are the ways to receive tax exemption for your org?
-
Contracts: Contract review, drafting, and negotiation
-
Liability issues: What are your governance requirements to avoid liability?
-
Environmental law: Do you have questions about how to create more green spaces for your community?
-
Worker Self Directed Nonprofits: How can you run your nonprofit organization more like a worker-owned cooperative?
Note: We especially encourage Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income communities to RSVP. We focus on cooperatives, participatory or democratic nonprofits, land trusts, and mutual aid groups. If you need Spanish Language or American Sign Language interpretation, please email Hope ([email protected]) with Subject Line "Interpretation Request - for [mm/dd/yyyy] event." We will do our best to accommodate your request.
Keep an eye out for an e-mail when you RSVP. The e-mail will have your appointment slot, instructions on how to attend our Legal Cafe remotely, and an intake form that we need you and your partners to fill out.
Format: You and/or your group will be paired with a lawyer for 30-45 minutes to get answers to questions about entity formation, contracts, governance, and more! Since we're based in Oakland, our event times are listed as Pacific Standard Time.
Got any questions? E-mail [email protected]!
Only one person per group needs to RSVP.
-
Thursday, September 03, 2026 at 10:00 AM PDT · 6 rsvps
ZoomSolidari-Tea Time
A companion to our Legal Cafes, Solidari-Tea Time provides opportunities for solidarity economy movement organizations to get advice, coaching and support with challenges you are experiencing on your organizational development journey.
- Are you having trouble making decisions together?
- Do you need support sharing work more effectively?
- Are you having a hard time bringing in new members to your organization?
- Are experienced members struggling to adapt to your new ways of working under shared leadership?
- Are you experiencing conflict as you encounter growing pains?
- Are you wondering what your next steps are as you transition to shared leadership?
You are not alone! And we’re here to help.
Building organizations that align with our values of justice, shared leadership, and participatory democracy is challenging. Bring your questions, challenges, and stumbling blocks to Solidari-Tea Time, and get support from consultants and practitioners experienced in building worker self-directed nonprofits, cooperatives, and other organizations practicing liberatory values.
Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM PDT
Online via Zoom in Oakland, CAResilient Movements Legal Cafe
Sustainable Economies Law Center’s Resilient Movements Legal Café is a legal advice clinic for grassroots groups, nonprofits, and community organizations seeking to strengthen infrastructure resilience, operational continuity and preparedness, and legal compliance. These sessions offer a supportive container to work through practical questions related to governance, entity structures, and internal policies, and to demystify how to navigate periods of heightened scrutiny, helping groups move from uncertainty to grounded strategy and planning in support of their missions and day-to-day operations.
Background
These Legal Café sessions build on our broader work supporting groups and organizations with nonprofit protection, risk education, and proactive legal planning. Over the past year, we’ve developed training, resources, and hands-on support, often in partnership with aligned organizations, focused on organizational resilience, entity structure options, and risk-aware operations. In 2025, we offered these new resources to grassroots groups, alongside limited-scope consultations for organizations seeking support. This year, we’re dedicating additional resources to monthly Legal Cafés to support durable structures and practices that help organizations sustain their missions over the long term.
To RSVP, please click the RSVP link for the session you’d like to attend:
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June 10, 2026, 12-1:30 PST (RSVP by June 1 for priority)
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July 23, 2026, 12-1:30 PST (RSVP by June 13 for priority)
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August 13, 2026, 12-1:30 PST (RSVP by August 3 for priority)
- September 10, 2026, 12:00-1:30 PST (RSVP by August 31 for priority)
What this space supports
These sessions are for groups and organizations seeking proactive support to strengthen infrastructure resilience, operational continuity and preparedness, and legal compliance including groups navigating increased scrutiny or operational vulnerabilities. We welcome questions related to nonprofit governance (board/staff policies), entity structure considerations, resilience assessment, documentation practices, compliance, and operational planning.
Note: This space is designed for proactive planning and capacity-building and is not intended for urgent, time-sensitive emergencies. If your organization is facing an immediate legal deadline or acute situation, we recommend seeking direct counsel right away. One of our partners, Muslims for Just Futures, has also put together an excellent Community Defense Resource Hub.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 03:00 PM PDT
Online in San Francisco, CAProtecting Artist IP in Contracts
RSVP below!
This FREE ONLINE NANO-TRAINING is brought to you by the Artist Legal Cafe, a cross-sector partnership between SELC, Vital Arts, and Movement Law, an artist-led initiative that offers direct services and capacity-building to individual artists, artist collectives, and arts organizations. The ALC is generously supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Gerbode Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Bay Area Cultural Funders for Equity, and the City of Oakland.
This event is in partnership with BLACspace Cooperative
DESCRIPTION:
Protecting Artist IP in Contracts
with Hope MohrPart of taking yourself seriously as a creative is having strong contracts that protect your intellectual property. This training will cover the types of IP, different contract contexts where IP is an issue (with a special focus on collaboration contracts and jointly held IP), the work for hire doctrine (how worker classification relates to IP), fiscal sponsorship, and tips for protecting your IP from being used for AI training.
ABOUT HOPE MOHR
Hope Mohr (she/her) is an artist, arts leader, and attorney. She works at the intersection of art and social change as a Fellow with the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) and co-leads the Artist Legal Cafe, a collaboration with SELC and Vital Arts. Her law practice, Movement Law, supports artists, changemakers, and mission-driven organizations. Her practice areas include intellectual property, contracts, entity selection, entity formation, organizational strategy, fiscal sponsorship, leadership transition support, nonprofit management and compliance, Boards and by-laws, executive coaching, and more.
FREE LEGAL CONSULTATIONS FOLLOW from 3:30-5:30
After the workshop, we will roll into the legal consult portion of our Artist Legal Cafe.
Want to sign up for a FREE legal consultation after the workshop? RSVP here to receive a free 30-45 minute legal consultation.ACCESS NEEDS? Let us know!
ARTIST LEGAL CAFE PARTNERS
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice by appointment.
Vital Arts envisions a world in which groundbreaking arts and culture that are essential for the continued health and vitality of society at large are recognized and cultivated. We seek to bring this about by implementing projects to meet the needs of low income artists in the Bay Area.
Movement Law, the client-centered law practice of Hope Mohr (she/her), is dedicated to supporting artists, changemakers, and mission-driven organizations.
Questions? Access needs? E-mail [email protected]!
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 03:30 PM PDT
Online - Zoom in Oakland, CAOnline Artist Legal Cafe
RSVP below!In partnership with:
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice by appointment.
Vital Arts envisions a world in which groundbreaking arts and culture that are essential for the continued health and vitality of society at large are recognized and cultivated. We seek to bring this about by implementing projects to meet the needs of low income artists in the Bay Area.
Movement Law, the client-centered law practice of Hope Mohr (she/her), is dedicated to supporting artists, changemakers, and mission-driven organizations.
Got any questions? E-mail [email protected]!
Here are some questions we will be prepared to answer:
❖ Radical real estate law: How to form a housing cooperative, real estate cooperative, or nonprofit housing?
❖ Legal formation for small businesses: What are the regulations and requirements to have your organization legally function?
❖ Legal entity choice: Should your org be a for profit, non-profit, and which legal entity fits best with your vision?
❖ Employment law: Whether you're an employer, employee, or a cooperative, we can answer questions on how to prevent or resolve issues?
❖ Tax law: What are the ways to receive tax exemption for your org?
❖ Contracts: Contract review, drafting, and negotiation
❖ Liability issues: What are your governance requirements to avoid liability?
❖ Environmental law: Do you have questions about how to create more green spaces for your community?
❖ Worker Self Directed Nonprofits: How can you run your nonprofit organization more like a worker-owned cooperative?Note: We especially encourage Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income communities to RSVP. We focus on cooperatives, participatory or democratic nonprofits, land trusts, and mutual aid groups. If you need Spanish Language or American Sign Language interpretation, please email Hope ([email protected]) with Subject Line "Interpretation Request - for [mm/dd/yyyy] event." We will do our best to accommodate your request.
Keep an eye out for an e-mail when you RSVP. The e-mail will have your appointment slot, instructions on how to attend our Legal Cafe remotely, and an intake form that we need you and your partners to fill out.
Format: You and/or your group will be paired with a lawyer for 30-45 minutes to get answers to questions about entity formation, contracts, governance, and more! Since we're based in Oakland, our event times are listed as Pacific Standard Time.
Only one person per group needs to RSVP.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 09:30 AM PDT · 2 rsvps
ZoomSolidari-Tea Time
A companion to our Legal Cafes, Solidari-Tea Time provides opportunities for solidarity economy movement organizations to get advice, coaching and support with challenges you are experiencing on your organizational development journey.
- Are you having trouble making decisions together?
- Do you need support sharing work more effectively?
- Are you having a hard time bringing in new members to your organization?
- Are experienced members struggling to adapt to your new ways of working under shared leadership?
- Are you experiencing conflict as you encounter growing pains?
- Are you wondering what your next steps are as you transition to shared leadership?
You are not alone! And we’re here to help.
Building organizations that align with our values of justice, shared leadership, and participatory democracy is challenging. Bring your questions, challenges, and stumbling blocks to Solidari-Tea Time, and get support from consultants and practitioners experienced in building worker self-directed nonprofits, cooperatives, and other organizations practicing liberatory values.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 11:00 AM PDT · $10.00 USD
ZoomTransitioning to Shared Leadership p. 1
Can you do it? Assess your Organizational Capacity for Transitioning to Shared Leadership
Why is transitioning to shared leadership easier for some organizations than others? In the first training in the series, Hope will guide us through a checklist of variables impacting organizational capacity for the transition to shared leadership. Using specific examples, the training will consider questions around sequencing your transition and explore especially tricky challenges for nonprofits, including funder relations and navigating the role of the Board. Resources offered will include a self-assessment tool to bring back to your team.
Part one of our Microtraining Trio: Transitioning to Shared Leadership
This is a three-part series of short (30 minute), participatory trainings for organizations considering the transition to shared leadership. Training topics include assessing organizational capacity (September 30), identifying and shifting power (October 21), and navigating organizational culture shifts (Nov 18). People are encouraged to show up with their organizational team, and will be invited to take steps between each session to deepen their exploration of building shared leadership. Join one, two, or all three!
Facilitated by attorney Hope Mohr, Fellow with the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Co-leader of the Artist Legal Cafe. Mohr co-stewarded the transition of the nonprofit that she founded and has since supported dozens of mission-driven organizations on the shared leadership journey.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 12:00 PM PDT
Online via Zoom in Oakland, CAOnline Legal Cafe
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice, via Zoom, by appointment.
If you need advice about starting a worker-owned cooperative, converting an existing business into a cooperative, organizing a housing cooperative, founding a nonprofit or other social enterprise, please RSVP below! Here are some questions we will be prepared to answer:
-
Radical real estate law: How to form a housing cooperative, real estate cooperative, or nonprofit housing?
-
Legal formation for small businesses: What are the regulations and requirements to have your organization legally function?
-
Legal entity choice: Should your org be a for profit, non-profit, and which legal entity fits best with your vision?
-
Employment law: Whether you're an employer, employee, or a cooperative, we can answer questions on how to prevent or resolve issues?
-
Tax law: What are the ways to receive tax exemption for your org?
-
Contracts: Contract review, drafting, and negotiation
-
Liability issues: What are your governance requirements to avoid liability?
-
Environmental law: Do you have questions about how to create more green spaces for your community?
-
Worker Self Directed Nonprofits: How can you run your nonprofit organization more like a worker-owned cooperative?
Note: We especially encourage Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income communities to RSVP. We focus on cooperatives, participatory or democratic nonprofits, land trusts, and mutual aid groups. If you need Spanish Language or American Sign Language interpretation, please email Hope ([email protected]) with Subject Line "Interpretation Request - for [mm/dd/yyyy] event." We will do our best to accommodate your request.
Keep an eye out for an e-mail when you RSVP. The e-mail will have your appointment slot, instructions on how to attend our Legal Cafe remotely, and an intake form that we need you and your partners to fill out.
Format: You and/or your group will be paired with a lawyer for 30-45 minutes to get answers to questions about entity formation, contracts, governance, and more! Since we're based in Oakland, our event times are listed as Pacific Standard Time.
Got any questions? E-mail [email protected]!
Only one person per group needs to RSVP.
-
Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 11:00 AM PDT · $10.00 USD
ZoomTransitioning to Shared Leadership p. 2
So you want to try? Identifying and Shifting Power through Power-Mapping
Organizational power is held in many different ways within an organization. The second training in the series will cover different approaches to identifying and distributing power in specific organizational areas, from programming to budgeting to funder relations. Hope will talk about navigating the potential relational tensions in the practice of distributing power and tips for creating a meaningful container to hold this kind of conversation.
Part two of our Microtraining Trio: Transitioning to Shared Leadership
This is a three-part series of short (30 minute), participatory trainings for organizations considering the transition to shared leadership. Training topics include assessing organizational capacity (September 30), identifying and shifting power (October 21), and navigating organizational culture shifts (Nov 18). People are encouraged to show up with their organizational team, and will be invited to take steps between each session to deepen their exploration of building shared leadership. Join one, two, or all three!
Facilitated by attorney Hope Mohr, Fellow with the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Co-leader of the Artist Legal Cafe. Mohr co-stewarded the transition of the nonprofit that she founded and has since supported dozens of mission-driven organizations on the shared leadership journey.
Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 03:00 PM PDT
Online in San Francisco, CADeveloping Internal Governance Roadmaps
RSVP below!
This FREE ONLINE NANO-TRAINING is brought to you by the Artist Legal Cafe, a cross-sector partnership between SELC, Vital Arts, and Movement Law, an artist-led initiative that offers direct services and capacity-building to individual artists, artist collectives, and arts organizations. The ALC is generously supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Gerbode Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Bay Area Cultural Funders for Equity, and the City of Oakland.
This event is part of "Power Tools for Artists: A Capacity Building Series," a year-long collaboration, providing capacity-building support to artists in the Solidarity Economy, among Art.coop, Obvious Agency, United Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and the Artist Legal Cafe (a project of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, Vital Arts, and Movement Law). Learn more about the series and about our collaboration at https://art.coop/power-tools-for-artists.
DESCRIPTION:
Developing Internal Governance Roadmaps
with Alex GlancyWhether you are a nonprofit, LLC, collective, or cooperative, this FREE online nano-training will talk through a set of questions that you should discuss with your team to lay the map of your organization's governance structure. Issues discussed will include: Decisionmaking, distribution of power, Boards, membership, and more.
ABOUT ALEX GLANCY
Alex Glancy is a partner and founding attorney at Impact Matters Law, where she serves clients across a range of industries and desired impact. With keen attention to detail and interdisciplinary issues, Alex advises in the areas of corporate structuring and governance, capital-raising, contract law, mergers and acquisitions, and intellectual property.
Alex is experienced with the formation of business entities including LLCs, corporations, benefit corporations, nonprofits, and cooperatives. Alex counsels on capital-raising strategies and securities compliance at the federal and state levels. In addition, Alex represents buyers and sellers of small and medium sized businesses in employee ownership and perpetual purpose trust (PPT) conversions.
In addition to her corporate and securities work, Alex leads the intellectual property (IP) practice. She counsels on copyright and trademark matters for entrepreneurs and artists in creative industries, including negotiating, reviewing, and drafting IP-related contracts of key importance to clients’ IP portfolios. She has represented production companies, consultants, and fine artists in these areas.
Alex graduated from Harvard Law School, where she participated in the Community Enterprise Project. She holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Northwestern University in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS) and Anthropology. Prior to joining Impact Matters, she worked at the Arts Law Centre of Australia, the Office of the General Counsel of New York University, and at a global law firm.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Alex prides herself on being a community lawyer of service to her city. She has presented to groups at UCLA, CalArts, Otis College of Art and Design, and the California Center for Cooperative Development.
FREE LEGAL CONSULTATIONS FOLLOW from 3:30-5:30
After the workshop, we will roll into the legal consult portion of our Artist Legal Cafe.
Want to sign up for a FREE legal consultation after the workshop? RSVP here to receive a free 30-45 minute legal consultation.ACCESS NEEDS? Let us know!
ARTIST LEGAL CAFE PARTNERS
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice by appointment.
Vital Arts envisions a world in which groundbreaking arts and culture that are essential for the continued health and vitality of society at large are recognized and cultivated. We seek to bring this about by implementing projects to meet the needs of low income artists in the Bay Area.
Movement Law, the client-centered law practice of Hope Mohr (she/her), is dedicated to supporting artists, changemakers, and mission-driven organizations.
Questions? Access needs? E-mail [email protected]!
