Entrepreneurship Clinic

Course Description

The Entrepreneurship Clinic is a one-semester course that introduces students to transactional lawyering. Students in the Clinic will provide free transactional legal services to low income and moderate income entrepreneurs and community based organizations in New York City on issues relating to new and emerging businesses. The clinic will appeal to students interested in learning to work with organizational clients and learning to represent entrepreneurs.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork in the Clinic will take the form of interviewing, legal research, problem-solving and legal analysis, writing, counseling, transaction/project planning, negotiating, and drafting contracts.  More specifically, the Clinic will undertake legal work for clients that may include: 1) advising about entity choice and assisting with corporate formation, 2) answering employment law questions, 3) assisting with the registration of trademarks and advising on other intellectual property issues, 4) drafting and negotiating agreements such as leases and other contract agreements, 5) assisting with applications for tax-exemptions and 6) advising on relevant regulatory and licensing issues. Students may also research and write on issues related to public policies that affect Clinic clients and may provide community education workshops on substantive law issues pertinent to the Clinic’s practice areas.

Seminar

As part of their Clinic experience, students attend a weekly classroom seminar, which combines analysis of client matters, the relevant substantive law and lawyering skills required in a transactional practice.  

Attorneys for entrepreneurs encounter client needs in a variety of expansive substantive areas.  In addition to the lawyering skills learned in seminar and clinic work, student attorneys in the clinic will be exposed to a range of substantive legal disciplines in the seminar including:

• Business formation
• Intellectual property law
• Contract drafting and negotiation
• Start-up capital raising  and financing
• Corporate governance
• Employment law
• Other transactional legal services

Learning Outcomes

Although it is not possible to know in advance which cases each student will work on, they will all have some of the following experiences:

• Represent a new business entity in the drafting of organizational documents;
• Act in the role of general counsel to an organization as it embarks on or continues its business operations;
• As general counsel, assist an organization in negotiating and documenting a transaction; and
• Work as part of a team on a larger community project.
• Such experiences are intended to achieve the following goals:
• Reflect on ethical considerations and determine appropriate course of action;
• Reflect on concerns particular to entities operating in low-income and/or minority neighborhoods and appreciate goals and commitments of organizations working in those communities;
• Become familiar with resources for researching legal and practical problems concerning transactional matters;
• Reflect on clients’ problems from various perspectives, such as tax, finance and accounting, and develop interdisciplinary recommendations;
• Improve your general lawyering skills, particularly clear writing, cogent analysis, negotiation, client counseling and cross-cultural competence;
• Practice skills particular to transactional work and to the representation of organizations;
• Learn practical skills necessary to set up business organizations;
• Integrate substantive law with real world clinic cases; and
• Assist clients engaged in business and community development efforts.

Application Procedure

Students interested in applying for the clinic should submit the standard application, resume, and transcript online through CAMS.

* 7 credits include 3 clinical (fieldwork) credits and 4 academic seminar credits.