Jenny Kassan is an attorney and community development consultant, specializing in environmentally friendly and socially responsible ventures. She is the managing director of Katovich Law Group. Her legal practice areas include small business start-up and financing, securities regulation, nonprofit law, business agreements, real estate development, franchising, cooperatives, and assessment districts.

Jenny earned a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and earned her J.D. from Yale Law School. She worked for eleven years at the Unity Council, a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents.

Jenny has also worked for Ralph Nader’s Center for Study of Responsive Law, University Students Cooperative Association, the Institute for Policy Studies, California Rural Legal Assistance, Texas Rural Legal Aid, La Mujer Obrera Workers Center, Center for Democratic Solutions, National Economic Development and Law Center, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the City of Oakland, Alameda County Social Services Agency, the Training and Development Corporation, and Richmond Main Street Initiative.

Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities. She served as president of Oakland Merchants Leadership Forum, the Oakland chapter of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies; member of the Project Area Committee for the Central City East Redevelopment Area; treasurer for California Main Street Alliance; member of the Oakland Mayor’s Small Business Task Force; and member of the board of directors of Oakland’s City-wide Community Land Trust.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Business Alliance and Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont.  She is a member of the California Bar Association’s Nonprofit Organizations Committee.  She is a volunteer mentor with the BUILD Youth Business Incubator at Lionel Wilson Academy in Oakland.

Jenny’s upcoming engagements:

The National Cooperative Business Association Annual Conference – May 4-6, Washington, DC

Past engagements:

The Business of Sustainability: Growing Health, Wealth, and Ecological Integrity in our Food System – January 20, 2010 – Pacific Grove, CA

Jenny’s transcripts and publications:

Protecting Your Mission: Legal Tools to Keep Your Company on the Righteous Path - Small Business Monthly
How to Raise Money But Not Break the Bank – Small Business Monthly
Structuring Your Business for Sustainability – CASFS Conference
“Alternative Structures for ‘Social Businesses” - Business Law News.
Legally speaking, what is a Worker Cooperative
SEA conference article