Business Transactions Clinic

Course Description

Learning Goals

Students in the Business Transactions Clinic learn

• practical lawyering skills and substantive legal knowledge that promote success and the ability of critical reflection as lawyers in any area of transactional practice;
• how to help clients solve problems, make decisions, and accomplish their goals;
• the values in legal practice of efficiency, clarity, reliability, empathy, professionalism, and teamwork; and
• how to serve the community through pro bono representation of organizational clients in transactional matters.

Client Work

The Clinic provides free business, transactional and advisory legal services to nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, cooperatives, and under-resourced entrepreneurs and small businesses that operate in areas of concern to the public.

Our projects involve, for example:

• business planning and entity formation;
• commercial, corporate, financing, leasing and licensing transactions;
• compliance with laws and regulations relating to securities, charitable solicitation, and tax-exempt status;
• corporate governance and internal policies; and
• relationships with employees, service providers, founders, investors, and affiliates.

Our services do not include trademark or patent applications, tax filings or advice, litigation, or dispute resolution.

To complete our projects, students work in teams of two, with the close supervision and guidance of Clinic faculty.

Seminar

The Clinic includes a weekly seminar. The seminar teaches a core set of skills that apply to a wide range of transactional contexts students may encounter as they enter practice, focused on communicating effectively with clients and colleagues; evaluating how to structure deals, relationships, and organizational governance; identifying and helping clients navigate legal and regulatory obligations and challenges affecting their planned activities; managing process and workflow in a collaborative, proactive, and well-organized manner; developing drafting skills; and analyzing potential ethical issues.

The seminar will also be a space to critically consider the world of transactional law; the political, economic, and social systems within which transactional legal work takes place; and the possibility for transactional legal practice to contribute to, or prefigure, social change that moves us toward a more democratic and just political economy. In addition, students will focus on how the current transactional world works, building confidence around one’s ability to understand complex business and financial dynamics. Working towards this goal, the seminar introduces students to a few major economic, business, and financial topics and their intersection with law. We will use a range of interdisciplinary readings to ground our lessons and in-class discussions.

Seminar time also includes a variety of in-class exercises aimed at developing core legal skills and critical capacities. Many of these exercises call for students to collaborate with their classmates.

Time Commitment

The seminar meets once a week for two hours. Students must attend every seminar. Before each class, they must read all assigned materials and occasionally prepare for presentations and other activities in collaboration with classmates.

In addition, students attend regular team meetings with their partners and Clinic faculty to discuss client work. They also participate in separate calls and meetings with clients throughout the semester. We accommodate students’ course schedules and other responsibilities when arranging these activities. As in any clinic at the Law School, students should expect to spend an average of 10 to 20 hours per week on client work.

Student Application Procedure

Students should submit the standard clinic application, resume and law school transcript using CAMS, the online application system. There is no interview, but the faculty and staff may contact students with questions regarding their applications. For more information about the Clinic, please contact any of the prior students listed below.

Student Contacts

* Consult the Clinics Open to LL.M. Students page to see if the clinic is available to LL.M.s in the current year. Note that space in the Business Transactions Clinic is limited and typically fills with JDs.

** 5 credits include 3 clinical credits and 2 academic seminar credits.