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Spring is finally here, and with the warmer weather come the sights and sounds of newness everywhere you look, including downtown. It seems only fitting that this time of year we’re also celebrating and contributing to the success of Detroit’s newest businesses, businesses that are bringing energy and vitality to the city as fresh as spring itself.
We are excited that our client, Detroit Blows, one of the city’s first blow-dry bars, and its owners Katy Cockrel and Nia Batts, are receiving a $20,000 grant from Motor City Match, which connects new and growing businesses with funding, real estate and the tools entrepreneurs need to succeed.
Miller Canfield real estate attorney Ryan Warsh was particularly thrilled to help Cockrel and Batts to secure a premier location on Library Street, which many new business owners may have shied away from, assuming that it would be out of reach for a fledgling venture. But we’re happy to report that they will later this summer open in The Z Garage in downtown Detroit, a location that will offer them the kind of visibility and foot traffic that will give them the best shot at success.
We’re also proud to play a major role in the annual Small Business Legal Academy Detroit (SBLA), which helps new and future entrepreneurs by providing legal help specifically for new business owners. SBLA is now in its third year and is partnering with Detroit Startup Week, May 22-26. Detroit Startup Week, hosted by Techstars and powered by Chase for Business, celebrates Detroit’s entrepreneur community. Startup businesses are invited to more than 100 free events that are designed to support their growth and build a strong business community in the city.
Miller Canfield attorneys Thomas Linn and Wendy Richards serve on Detroit Startup Week’s volunteer advisory board, and helped facilitate its partnership with SBLA, which the firm sponsors and has invested countless hours to help organize. The academy will be a kick-off event for Startup Week.
On Saturday, May 20, SBLA will host a presentation at Wayne State University’s Undergrad Library Lecture Hall, during which experts will talk to entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs about topics such as intellectual property, employment law, real property, and organizational basics and funding.
Additionally, SBLA will host two free, no-strings-attached legal clinics during Startup Week—one in Southwest Detroit and one at the Masonic Temple. The clinics will consist of 30-60 minute meetings between teams lawyers and Detroit business owners. The business owners will pre-register and identify the areas of law on which they have questions. SBLA will match the business owners’ needs with the right legal team to answer their questions.
Giving new and soon-to-be entrepreneurs these valuable tools to launch and run their businesses is an investment we’re proud to make in our community and in the new businesses that are contributing to the vitality of our city.
- Senior Counsel
He served as the firm's CEO from 2013 to 2021. Under his leadership, the firm renewed and strengthened its commitment to law firm diversity, equity and inclusion, becoming the only Michigan-based firm, and one of only 24 nationwide ...