When Danielle Tietjen and Joanne Goddard started beekeeping in community gardens on the north side of Minneapolis, they had no intention of turning it into a business. But bees are busy creatures, and soon there was an abundance of honey. Tietjen and Goddard wanted to sell that honey and reinvest all the profits back into the community. To do so, they needed to set up a business. They called it Humboldt Honey Mpls.
Tietjen and Goddard initially came to the University of Minnesota through the Carlson School of Management’s Impact Lab. As they discussed what kind of business they wanted to start, it soon became clear they needed legal support as well. In the spring semester, they partnered with two Minnesota Law students in the Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic and got to work.
“We knew we could just Google how to form a business, but that felt sterile,” Tietjen says. “We really wanted to explore and understand our options and what kind of business falls in line with our morals, ethics — and yes, legality. We believed that we could do business our way, which is community-rooted, neighbor-focused, environmentally conscious, and not in it for capitalism.”
Kate Carlson ’27 and Cat Cox ’26 helped launch Humboldt Honey Mpls LLC, a decision they arrived at together after many conversations. Tietjen and Goddard knew they didn’t want to be a big business, but they also didn’t want to be a nonprofit. As longtime Northsiders, they had witnessed many nonprofits “drop in, sound fancy, get the money grab, and then leave,” says Tietjen. They wanted to do something different.
An LLC allows Humboldt Honey Mpls to sell its product, and the legal documents Carlson and Cox drafted for them also offer some protections they hadn’t considered, like liability waivers.
“They didn’t think they were at risk of being sued, and they weren’t concerned about that,” Carlson says. “But the liability is huge because they’re dealing with bees, and some people are allergic or afraid of getting stung.”
They settled on creating liability waivers for events held by Humboldt Honey Mpls at the community gardens. Still, since the gardens are a public space, they didn’t think waivers were necessary for everyone who visits on their own. In those instances, a sign warning people that bees can sting would be sufficient.
In addition to the liability waivers, the students wrote Humboldt Honey’s operating agreement and articles of organization and got their business licenses. Cox loved getting hands-on, practical drafting experience — something that can’t be done in the classroom alone — while working with a mission-driven organization.
“It was really cool that I could do business law and have it be so community-oriented,” she says. “They wanted to take the community into consideration for every decision they made. Being able to support a company doing that was fulfilling.”
The clinic typically has 16 students and an equal number of small business clients participating every semester. The students work in pairs with two different clients and a supervising attorney. All clients are small businesses, startups, or solo founders, giving the students the chance to lead the entire legal process. Clinic director Kiri Somermeyer says it’s a critical experience for students, as they often wouldn’t otherwise interact with clients at that level until a few years into their law careers. This experience resonates with students who want to practice corporate or business law, as well as those who are passionate about helping others.
“Many of these students are interested in being business lawyers, but they also see the way that those corporate law skills can really give back to the community and help it grow the economy, provide jobs, and contribute to the livelihoods of small business owners, artists, and other founders,” Somermeyer says.
For the Humboldt Honey Mpls project, Carlson and Cox were supervised by Ryan Heck, a partner at the Minneapolis law firm Ballard Spahr. Heck says the work they did was representative of what his firm does every day, and the practical experience is invaluable. He also learned from the students, who bring fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to the project.
“Some students have never worked closely with a client before, and learning to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and translate legal concepts into plain language is just as important as the substantive work,” Heck says. “We also emphasize drafting as a collaborative, iterative exercise, with the mentality that the first draft is rarely a final draft. That sustained, hands-on engagement is where real client skills are forged.”
The hands-on engagement even extended to the bees themselves. As part of a clinic-wide field trip, Carlson and Cox both donned beekeeping suits and ventured into the apiary to get a sense of their clients’ perspective and what their business looked like in practice. Both students entered the clinic with a pre-existing interest in bees, but this was their first time learning about them up close. Carlson says the experience wasn’t nearly as terrifying as she expected. In fact, as a lifelong gardener, she really enjoyed it.
Carlson and Cox are both still deciding what kind of law they’d like to practice, but getting out of the classroom and participating in experiential learning opportunities is helping them figure it out.
“The most interesting thing about it is how much the practice of law differs from the learning of law,” Carlson says. “I love my academic classes, but there’s a huge difference between learning about how important an operating agreement is and being able to write one. My appreciation for business law has grown from this experience.”