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July 27, 2009

The case for art: A new group directs pro bono legal services to artists in need

Photo/Michelle Hammarstrom Ezekiel Callanan, co-founder of the new Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, helps artists navigate legal and business matters
By Whit Richardson

When Eric Bettencourt incorporated his recording business Shadow Shine Records in Portland last year, he spent six hours in meetings with a lawyer and paid $1,400 in legal fees.

Given his modest budget, Bettencourt knew he needed to look for alternative answers to his questions about trademarks and copyrights. So when the Portland Music Foundation referred him to a new organization called Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Bettencourt gave it a shot.

The organization, founded last June by two recent graduates of the University of Maine School of Law, put Bettencourt in touch with a local attorney who offered his services pro bono. “I don’t know what I’d do without [the organization],” Bettencourt says. “I don’t have the budget to go back to another six-hour meeting to figure it all out.”

Ezekiel Callanan, co-founder and executive director of Maine VLA, says the organization was formed to provide legal and educational services to Maine artists with limited financial resources. Callanan says all artists who make a living through their craft is their own small business. “Maine is very rich and vibrant,” he says. “[The creative economy] is something I see as the future of Maine’s economy.”

This summer, Maine VLA set up an office and helped 16 artists and organizations in Maine, from Bangor to Portland. Despite not having much of a budget, the organization is planning its first educational event for October to focus on artists’ finances and taxes. Right now, the Maine VLA puts artists in touch with a lawyer willing to offer his or her services pro bono or for a fixed fee. But in the future, Callanan wants to serve clients in-house. The legal services are free or low-cost, but artists pay a $50 membership fee and an application fee to Maine VLA.

“If you think you’re an artist, you probably are,” he says of how the organization defines “artist.” Maine VLA helps artists navigate legal issues that are often lost on artists-cum-business owners. “Artists may have the skills to be successful artists,” Callanan says. “But many don’t have the skills to run a successful business.”

David Marshall, a painter, Portland city councilor and owner of Constellation Gallery, says successful artists these days are expected to negotiate contractual relationships, legal matters and maintain a website. “And so you have to become a jack-of-all-trades to be an artist,” says Marshall, who has donated space for Maine VLA’s office. “Any assistance that can be provided in the legal realm as far as how to set up a business model is really critical to moving artists forward. Maine VLA certainly provides that vital link.”

Chelsea Fournier, a first-year associate attorney at Preti Flaherty, normally charges $165 an hour for her services. She is working with a businesswoman who decorates plastic flamingoes and is trying to protect her trademark rights from a former employer. Fournier spent 12 hours working for free on the case and watched her client become empowered once she knew her legal rights. “It’s rewarding as an attorney to see some growth, and that you may be having an impact on someone,” she says.

The organization is modeled after a national Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts program, first established in New York in 1973. Today, there are around 35 independent VLAs in the United States, according to Callanan. Maine had a Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts between 1993 and 2001, but it dissolved when its founder left the state, he says.

The organization has already had grant applications turned down by the Libra Foundation, the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission, but Callanan is confident the organization will receive grants next year after it has proven how much it can do on its own shoestring budget.

Reader comments

From Roger Hinchliffe (Mon 7/27/2009 10:14 PM)

So glad to read about the Maine VLA!

Wish they had been there in 2007 when I had a minor dispute with a CD distributor in MN...

Great article. Keep up the good work!

Roger Hinchliffe
(Composer/producer/distributor of my own CD's).

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