Bettering the world, in an entrepreneurial way

By Clare Hiyama
U-M Law

The work that David Guenther and his law students had done in the classroom came alive in the heat and sun of a settlement in Colombia earlier this summer, when Guenther and adjunct professor Dave Koch worked to mix mortar and shovel concrete to help build second rooms onto the homes of two local families with few financial resources. Guenther heads the University of Michigan Law School’s International Transactions Clinic (ITC), where the unofficial motto is, he says, “Doing good by doing deals.” In this case, the students and professors at the ITC fulfilled this motto in their work with Habitat for Humanity’s MicroBuild fund.

The fund provides loans for microfinance institutions internationally, which lend small amounts of money to low-income families to build homes and improve upon existing homes. The students working on the case, under the supervision of attorney and ITC adjunct professor Carl Valenstein, provided pro bono legal services for Habitat, helping the organization structure, raise, and document two successive rounds of the $100 million housing fund. Students were able to research pertinent legal issues, review loan agreements, draft ancillary documents, and assist with closing under the guidance of Valenstein and in cooperation with attorneys at Morgan Lewis LLP, where Valenstein is a partner.

According to Avni Patel, a student in the clinic who worked on the deal as a 2L, this was the first time many of the students learned to practice transactional law. The experience, Patel says, was very useful in developing a practical legal skillset.

This year, Habitat for Humanity’s efforts with its MicroBuild fund were acknowledged by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. government’s development finance institution, with its Access to Finance award. The award was presented after the fund helped provide access to financing for better houses for more than 250,000 people in 20 countries.

“Habitat helps people at the bottom of the global socio-economic pyramid by providing them with financing and other tools they need to improve their own lives in a sustainable way,” Guenther says. “That approach fits very well into the work we do in the ITC; not only does it help us teach our students the legal issues involved in doing an international transaction, but it also helps our students understand how they can use their legal skills and transactional and business law generally to better the world around them, in an entrepreneurial way.”

For Patel, the experience of working on the deal will be memorable: “The Habitat deal was the first deal I have worked on, ever, so it was one that I will always remember. It was very exciting to work on a deal of this magnitude and for such a well-known client, while being able to doing really substantive work. …I’ve gained a greater appreciation and understanding of organizations with social missions and of organizations with an international reach. The skills I have gained in the clinic are helping me start my legal career on the right foot.”