Despite decades of experience in software development, Eric Holsinger felt he needed help to bring his Dungeons & Dragons-related web app online.

Working with a tight budget, he sought guidance through various business groups. Still, he couldn’t find the expert advice he wanted to navigate complex legal and financial issues in a global marketplace.

It was a challenging checklist: to make sure his incorporation papers were in order; to protect his personal assets and intellectual property; to develop a marketing plan and secure a licensing agreement with Hasbro, the company that owns the fantasy role-playing game.

“I needed someone to help with my blind spots,” said Holsinger, 55, of Saco. “If I was going to start an oyster farm, it would have been easier to find people to show me the way.”

Then Holsinger discovered the Business & Law Clinic, launched in January by the University of Maine School of Law and Graduate School of Business. The program provides free business and legal counseling from graduate students who are overseen by professional supervisors.

Thought to be the first program of its kind in the U.S. — pairing law and graduate business students to work with startups and small companies — the clinic served 17 clients across Maine in its first semester and there’s already a waiting list for the fall.

Holsinger worked with Zaid Shaikh, a law student, and Collin McGarr, a business student. His web app dmpreroll.com helps dungeon masters — people like him who run D&D games — develop the adventure plots and challenges that players encounter during a game.

Holsinger found he not only challenged the students with some of his questions, particularly about international law, but he also benefited from their expertise, validation and deep understanding of his business goals.

“When you’re working on something alone, doubt creeps in,” he said. “It was nice to have their energy keeping me on track.”

LAW AND BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES

Funded for three years by the Alfond Foundation, the clinic is a needs-based program designed to support early stage entrepreneurs and under-resourced companies.

“If a business owner can afford to hire a lawyer, we ask that they do so,” said Erin Cusenbary, the clinic’s legal director.

The law students practice under Cusenbary’s scrutiny and her license with the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. The business students are supervised by Hugh Stevens, the clinic’s business director and the entrepreneur in residence at the business school.

Students in the clinic get to apply classroom concepts to real-world situations and are encouraged to think more broadly about a company’s actual needs, Cusenbary said. The paired students meet with clients both in person and online.

“Law students and business students have very different perspectives,” she said. “The law is clear cut. Business is more free-flowing and creative. The clinic pushes them to see both perspectives.”

While many law schools offer business law clinics and many organizations offer business advice, Cusenbary said this is the first time that a law school and a business school have teamed up to provide the services together.

“The fact that we’re giving free legal advice along with free business advice definitely sets us apart,” she said.

The clinic enrolled eight students this semester and will have a maximum of 12 students each semester, Cusenbary said. They’re taking on “student-sized projects” related to corporate structures and governance, funding sources, intellectual property, employment issues, marketing techniques, production processes and business scaling strategies. The first cohort of companies included a variety of small businesses, web startups and nonprofits.

The clinic cannot provide guidance on tax law, patent rights or dispute resolution, she said.

McGarr, the business student, who’s also studying for his law degree, said working with clients has shown him that it will take more than a master’s degree in business administration to work with most small firms in Maine.

“The MBA program is going to teach you the mechanics of business applications and what it means to work in a larger institution,” McGarr said. “That’s not necessarily the reality of the majority of Maine businesses. The clinic interactions help us to understand what any of those applications mean for companies doing business here.”

NO COST IS A KEY BENEFIT

Making the clinic free has been a major plus for most clients, many of whom are operating with narrow or nonexistent profit margins.

Sam Lander, 29, of Bangor, looked into hiring a lawyer to assist in developing his web platform Athlume.com, a dashboard that helps athletes, parents, coaches and athletic directors manage every aspect of an athletic program or career.

“It was going to cost $12,000 to $17,000,” Lander said. “I’ve funded this entirely by myself, so for me, the clinic was an amazing opportunity to ask a lot of questions and make sure I was doing everything legally.”

Lander had to consider many of the same startup issues that faced Holsinger, as well as establishing terms and conditions, data requirements and international contracts.

“All the things you don’t necessarily think about when you’re developing a business idea,” Lander said. “(The students) gave me valuable input and helped me not make silly mistakes.”

Lander worked with Leah Blackwood, a business student, and Ryan Morse, a law student. He said both students were extremely helpful — he’d consider hiring Morse as his lawyer in the future.

“He does such a good job explaining things,” Lander said. “He makes it accessible without dumbing it down.”

Morse and McGarr worked with Justin Russell, owner of One Ten Digital, a web and mobile app consulting firm he founded more than four years ago.

“I wanted to bring what I’ve been doing to the next level,” said Russell, 43, of Bangor. “Things are changing so fast, some terms are completely different from when I started.”

Russell said the students were “very professional and what I’d expect from a law office.” They advised him on updated accounting practices and high-level strategies for new projects.

McGarr also teamed up with Faith Sacre, a law student, to work with Katie Quinn, whose Cornville-based company, Ass Over Teakettle, makes Bloody Mary mix, BBQ sauce and ketchup.

Quinn runs her family’s seasonal Lakewood Theater and Lakewood Inn Restaurant in Madison. She perfected her cocktail mix while bartending at the inn and at Bullwinkle’s restaurant on Sugarloaf Mountain, where she made it in 5-gallon buckets.

Customers who loved the concoction convinced her to turn it into a business in 2014 and helped her with startup costs. She has expanded her product line over the years, but now she wants to be more strategic about growing the business and updating her cash management, she said.

Stevens, the clinic’s business director, has been Quinn’s business adviser for over a decade and suggested that she apply for a spot at the clinic.

“I know what needs to be done and how to do it,” said Quinn, 45. “I just hate to do the grunt work, and I don’t have the money up front to pay someone else to do it.”

And how has it been working with McGarr and Sacre?

“They’ve been great,” she said. “They’ve actually told me some things I didn’t know.”