Law360 Canada (July 29, 2026, 2:25 PM EDT) -- On July 29, the Ontario Bar Association (OBA) and the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) announced a new partnership to “connect the rising entrepreneurs behind emerging small businesses with pivotal pro bono legal support” through the OBA’s Pro Bono Portal.
“This initiative began with a simple but important idea: access to legal assistance should not be the barrier that prevents a promising small business from starting, surviving or finding its footing,” said Louis Frapporti, chair of the OBA Pro Bono Committee.
“Small businesses create jobs, animate neighbourhoods and generate the economic activity that sustains healthy communities. By connecting eligible entrepreneurs with lawyers who are prepared to contribute their time and expertise, we are supporting not only individual businesses, but the vitality and resilience of Toronto’s commercial districts,” he added in a statement.
OBA president Katy Commisso
According to an OBA release, the partnership launches as a “structured pilot program designed to address a well-documented gap: in making their vision a reality and their mark in the community, many entrepreneurs require timely legal support at critical stages of their business’s development (e.g., formation, hiring, signing leases, navigating regulations) but lack the resources to obtain that help.”
The TABIA will serve as a “community intake point for businesses within Toronto’s 86 Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), receiving and screening legal requests from local entrepreneurs.”
“Entrepreneurs looking to start or keep their small business on the right footing can apply at
www.toronto-bia.com/LegalAccess. Lawyers can volunteer through OBA’s Pro Bono Portal (
www.oba.org/probono), which uses the Paladin platform to match opportunities based on skills, practice areas and availability,” the OBA explained.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our commercial districts and the heart of BIAs. Access to timely legal advice can make the difference between a business that launches and thrives and one that never gets off the ground,” said TABIA CEO John Kiru.
“This partnership reflects TABIA’s commitment to removing barriers for entrepreneurs and small business across Toronto’s main streets,” he emphasized.
According to the OBA, the pilot focuses on five practical areas of business law:
- “Business formation and structure
- Founder, shareholder and partnership agreements
- Commercial lease review
- Basic employment and contractor documentation
- Licensing, permitting and regulatory compliance guidance.”
“Ontario lawyers care deeply about their communities. They want to contribute to the places where they live and work, and the OBA wants to make that as easy as possible for them — not just for litigators but for solicitors as well,” said OBA president Katy Commisso.
“This partnership gives lawyers a structured, meaningful way to do exactly that by supporting small businesses at critical moments in their development. The relationships that come from these kinds of opportunities have a way of enduring, and that's good for businesses, good for communities, and good for lawyers,” she added.
The OBA’s Pro Bono Portal, the release explained, connects lawyers with “meaningful volunteer opportunities aligned with their practice areas, interests and availability.”
“The initiative is open to Ontario-based entrepreneurs, self-employed individuals and small business owners who are members of Toronto BIAs and who face financial barriers to obtaining paid legal services,” the release concluded.
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