The Business Startup Speaker Series — presented by the Iowa City Area Development Group and NewBoCo — leads current and aspiring entrepreneurs + small business owners through a Step-By-Step guide of all the things you need to know when starting and growing your business. From Administrative Basics to Branding, we’ll cover it all.

Join us in Iowa City on Wednesday, October 18th for the first session of Legal 101 for Starting a Business. 

Session Learning Objectives: There are many legal considerations when starting a business. We’ll discuss how to manage intellectual property, the different types of agreements (non-disclosures and non-competes), contract basics (indemnity, liabilities, accountabilities, exit clauses), and other legal do’s and don’ts that you’ll want to know about as you start and grow your business.

Featured Speaker: Mackensie Graham, Associate Attorney at BrownWinick

Mackensie K. Graham is an associate attorney at BrownWinick based in the firm’s Coralville office. Mackensie collaborates with a diverse set of clients in the broad practice areas of employment and labor and business and corporate and is based in the Iowa City area. Even if she has never encountered a client’s particular legal issue before, Mackensie will put in the work to learn about the landscape of their industry and the parameters of the problem. Whether it’s forming a business, navigating a tricky employment complaint, or keeping operations compliant, she meets her clients where they’re at with a dedicated optimism and a stubborn commitment to finding workable solutions. Mackensie views herself as a connector of good people doing interesting things. Her background in communications and public policy informs her approach to dynamic problem-solving and client-empowered advocacy. As someone who takes the“counselor” part of her job seriously, she believes strongly in making the legal system more accessible; she does so, in part, through breaking down complex legal concepts and offering approachable, non-judgmental advice. Before graduating from the University of Iowa College of Law, Mackensie earned a Master’s in Public Policy through the University of Northern Iowa and her Bachelor’s from Drake University. During her time in law school, she represented and advocated for the interests of nearly 10,000 students as President of Graduate and Professional Student Government. She mentored Student Writers in her role as Note & Comment Editor for the Iowa Law Review and collaborated with amazing clients as a Student Practitioner with the Community Empowerment Law Project. She was also the Iowa Student Bar Association Representative to the Iowa Law School Foundation. In 2021 she received the Hancher-Finkbine Distinguished Student Leader Award. Mackensie is a member of the Iowa State and American Bar Associations.