PLC Serves Orange County Groups at Nonprofit Legal Assessment Clinic Co-sponsored by Dorsey & Whitney and United Healthcare

PLC Helps “Build Better Brains” by Assisting Pretend City Children’s Museum

Pretend City Children’s Museum believes “play changes the world” and its interconnected city is designed to “build better brains” through purposeful play, hands-on learning experiences, role-playing and educational programming. It also takes some serious brainpower to keep this Orange County museum’s 17 interactive exhibits and activities running smoothly.

Michele Dickinson, the museum’s chief financial officer, is part of the brain trust that makes this community resource available to children and their families. Michele knew of the Public Law Center (PLC) even before joining Pretend City in 2008, but it wasn’t until a colleague forwarded her an email about an upcoming event that she decided to reconnect with PLC.

Signing up for what she thought was a seminar for nonprofit professionals, Michele arrived at PLC’s Nonprofit Legal Assessment Clinic on April 2 with some legal issues in mind but few expectations. After being matched with Garrett Heenan, the vice president and senior general counsel at OptimRx (a United Health Group Company) and Gabrielle Wirth, a partner at Dorsey and Whitney, Michele walked away “really excited and thankful that all [her] issues were resolved.”

“This was so much easier than trying to read a law on the Internet,” said Michele. “Garrett and Gabrielle knew my issues right away, walked me through the options I should explore and explained the best practices for each type of situation.”

For Garrett, who easily identified an “evergreen clause” in a vendor contract Michele was concerned about, “helping entrepreneurial organizations committed to accomplishing a socially worthy cause” was a no brainer.

His advice to nonprofits negotiating a contract is straightforward: “Don’t be afraid to push back on language or provisions that you think are unfavorable to your business. The worst that might happen is that they say no, but nonprofits will be surprised to find that some vendors can be flexible on contract terms.”

Gabrielle helped Michele with one of the leading employment law dilemmas for nonprofits—“non-exempt” versus “exempt” status for staff. “Gabrielle pointed to great resources I could use to discuss the issue with our executive director,” said Michele.

“I had a full hour with two amazing attorneys for free, “ added Michele. “You can’t get any better than that.” Except maybe at a place you can “build better brains” by playing.

The Nonprofit Legal Assessment Clinic is part of PLC’s Community Organization Legal Assistance Program.