Introducing the Multimedia Toolkit for Cooperative Law
There are too few lawyers who were trained in worker cooperative law, yet interest in cooperatives has ballooned. SELC believes there is not enough affordable, accessible legal support for worker cooperatives, and too few accessible spaces for attorneys to access training to build their worker cooperative and democratic workplace legal skills. To overcome these barriers, we developed the Multimedia Toolkit for Cooperative Law.
Our Primary Audiences:
- Practicing lawyers and cooperative development attorneys, and legal professionals who are members of cooperative associations
- Community economic development legal clinics, law students, legal workers, law school professors
- Cooperative developers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers
Our Goal:
We hope that, via an anytime, on-demand, online course, the Multimedia Toolkit for Cooperative Law will support the creation of a deeper and wider pool of skilled attorneys across the country who can support worker cooperatives and the growth of a more democratized economy. It’s like a choose your own adventure through the world of cooperative law!
To access the courses, you must create an account by selecting a membership. All memberships are free! See the written or video instructions below.
From the home page, click on Create an Account and select from the following membership options:
1. Open to All – this membership gives you free access to all of our public content, lessons and webinars.
2. SELC Staff – this membership is intended for SELC staff only. Please contact toolkit@theSELC.org for the password to join.
*A note on passwords: there are a few password protected courses for members of the Cooperative Professionals Guild (CPG). If you’re a member, please contact info@professionals.coop for the password. If you’re not a member, we encourage you to join! CPG is a national community of legal professionals and accountants specializing in cooperatives that engages in professional development through webinars and conferences.
The lessons are organized into Courses based on their themes. We have the following Course topics for you to choose from:
- Cooperative Foundations
- Ethics & Cooperative Law
- Legal Entity Formation for Cooperatives
- Governance & Management
- Employees & Employment Law
- Cooperative Finances
- Securities Offerings & Disclosure Documents
- Taxation of Cooperatives & Its Members
- Cooperative Conversions
- Cooperative Development & Ecosystem Building
This basic outline is standard across all our lessons:
- Title: We’ve indicated “CLE” for all courses that you can receive CLE credit hours for.
- Difficulty Level & Keywords are on top or each lesson.
- The Introduction & Objectives provide a brief overview.
- Our Intended Audience section indicates who the lessons was created for.
- Our Instructors section gives brief bios of the presenters.
- The Video contains the lesson presentation with a Transcript that you can download to follow along or take notes.
- Finally, the Slides and Resources contains links to the PowerPoint slides (when available) and other resources that may be useful for additional information. This section also contains the CLE quiz for credit lessons.
As a legal professional, you’ll get a few great benefits from being here:
- Access exclusive content. We’ve designed Multimedia Toolkit for Cooperative Law to inspire, instruct, and engage legal professionals of all skill levels.
- Meet new people. Your fellow legal professionals are as motivated as you are to master what we’re exploring here in Multimedia Toolkit for Cooperative Law, and there is space for comments and dialogue.
- Get results. You’re on a path of adventure! While it’s not necessarily easy, the transformation that skilled legal professionals can make by supporting a just transition in the world matters. In fact, our lives depend on it.
We’re here to get results and we know you are, too. Here’s the best way for each of us to get there:
Be supportive. Encourage and support your fellow legal professionals. Kindness, compassion, and courageous conversations (especially when we disagree) are the way we will create the beloved community we all deserve.
Share generously. Your stories and experiences may be exactly what another participant needs to hear today to solve a problem or seize an opportunity.
Be constructive. We’re here to push each other forward and lift each other up. Find ways to help each other think bigger, reframe challenges, and stay curious. Please provide feedback early and often!
Don’t spam, promote, or troll. The Multimedia Toolkit for Cooperative Law exists to help you and our community learn. It’s not a place to spam, promote, or bully anyone else.