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On a corner of southwest Durham, two miles from the Gothic spires of Duke University Chapel, sits a long, low brick building filling up most of two acres.

First opened in 1922 as Lyon Park Elementary School, the building stood empty and fell into disrepair after the school closed in the 1970s. Now it's a neighborhood anchor teeming with activity, thanks in part to a longstanding relationship between Duke Law’s Community Enterprise Clinic and the West End Community Foundation (WECF), which relies on its legal counsel to help manage the center.

The center now offers neighborhood residents a gym, indoor track, computer lab, community garden, playground, senior programs, adult education, tutoring, and more, along with tenants including a Duke-affiliated health clinic, a children’s music program, Head Start, and several city and county public agency offices.

“We couldn't have done it without the legal support and advice of the clinic, because what we would have had to pay in legal fees was a lot of money for us. We were drowning,” said Mayme Webb-Bledsoe, who attended the Lyon Park School as a child. Webb-Bledsoe helped lead the effort to restore the building in 1996 with a $6.4 million bond from the city and reopen it six years later as the Community Family Life & Recreation Center at Lyon Park.

“The Lyon Park project was unique in that nobody had ever given that amount of money to the Black community — and certainly not in Lyon Park — so pressure was on the nonprofit to perform,” Webb-Bledsoe said.

“It was very important to have an ally that could advise us and that we could learn from. The results are an institution in our community that we're really of.”

Webb-Bledsoe joined Duke University 25 years ago and now serves as assistant vice president for Duke Community Affairs. That office often calls on the Community Enterprise Clinic to help strengthen organizations in which Duke has invested.

The projects give Duke Law students experience as they represent nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs in Durham and throughout the state.

“The clinic helps students figure out what kind of lawyer they want to be and to develop their skills as a professional, so that when they become a lawyer they’ll already have experience handling at least three cases, two on their own and a third as part of a team,” said clinic director Andrew Foster, who established the clinic in 2002.

Students typically handle a variety of clients’ matters. For example, they might work with a new, community-based organization on matters such as filing articles of incorporation, drafting bylaws, setting up a board, and applying for tax-exempt status. They might also represent a more mature nonprofit in connection with a larger transactional case, such as the development of an affordable housing project. A third type of case, the legal assessment, allows students to practice collaborating as a team to evaluate a nonprofit’s operations and compliance efforts and report to its board of directors on areas that need strengthening to improve sustainability.

Already focused on a business law career when she enrolled in the clinic, Hannah Berg JD ’25 helped dissolve a nonprofit and file its final documents with the state. She also advised Jubilee Home, a Durham nonprofit that provides supportive housing and services to people reentering the community from incarceration, on what business structure would best suit a new social enterprise to train residents in job skills. Just before graduation Berg learned the new entity was approved.

“To get actual hands-on legal experience was really rewarding and boosted my confidence pre-graduation in terms of my skill set,” Berg said.

Developing transformative relationships

The ongoing relationship with Lyon Park is one of the clinic’s longest. As a Duke Law student, Jeff Ward JD/LLM ’09 worked with the WECF on a range of issues including advocating for its right to use bond funds to align with community needs.

“Particularly with a community organization with limited resources, there's a lot of advising at the intersection of law and business and organizational strategy. I was working with them more broadly on strategies for moving forward and helping them garner resources for the things they wanted to do,” recalled Ward, who returned to Duke Law after graduation to work as the clinic’s supervising attorney and now directs the Duke Center on Law & Technology.

“You start to grow into this role of an advisor and a counselor, and Andrew was such a great model for how to do that. He wants clients to have the primary voice. He helps you see right away that they're the experts and they bring a ton of assets and expertise to the table and you're there to help facilitate their vision.”

Ridge Ren JD ’26 worked with the WECF on a facility use agreement for the community center’s event space and a use and possession agreement with the City of Durham that governs how much the city pays for its share of the building and general upkeep. Ren also helped the foundation strategize and review the terms of the current agreement in preparation for renegotiations with the city.

“An important part of the practice of law is to know your client and tailor the help you are giving to a specific situation by communicating with them in detail to see what best suits their needs,” Ren said. “I really enjoyed having the opportunity to help local non-profits and learn from them. They are experts in what they do, and it was great to see how they are helping the community.

Webb-Bledsoe said the clinic’s work has helped transform Durham residents’ perception of the university.

“When I first started, people in the community were skeptical of Duke. There was a lot of mistrust. It took a while to begin to break down those walls, and Andrew Foster and the law clinic were pivotal in that regard,” she said.

“Andrew gave to the community by giving us students to work with who really wanted to work with us. I think my work would have been a little bit harder without it.”