Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic - Information for Students
The Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic offers students a unique opportunity to:
- develop and hone essential legal skills; and
- experience the multi-faceted roles and perspectives necessary to become business law practitioners.
The majority of the Clinic's clients are in the greater Philadelphia area. Participation in the Clinic involves the supervised practice of law in a professional setting. Students serve as counsel for real clients on matters pertaining to setting up and operating a business or nonprofit organization. Here is a typical student reaction to the experience:
"This course requires that you engage every single aspect of your legal education. From research and writing skills...from communication skills to negotiation skills, everything the law school taught me prior to the Clinic was engaged as a result of my experience with the Clinic. It was a lot of work, but it was challenging and gratifying."
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the course components?
The Clinic has three required components, which combined should require, on average, 15 hours per week of student time:
Seminar.
Each week, all Clinic students meet in an 80-minute seminar. Seminar topics may include negotiation, drafting, choosing a form of entity, federal tax-exempt status, lawyering for transactional practice, conflicts of interest, copyright and trademark and other professional responsibility themes. Guest speakers and simulation exercises are featured in a number of seminars. In addition, the seminar devotes time to discuss student-client issues.
Individual Meeting.
Each week, each Clinic student has a set individual meeting time with one of the Clinic's supervisors to discuss progress on client cases. The meetings offer students opportunities to discuss legal questions, review drafts of documents, explore ethical implications, identify client management issues and discuss the student's evolving understanding of the role of a transactional lawyer.
Client Work.
Client work is the largest time component of Clinic participation. Client work includes interviewing and advising clients, researching issues, and drafting correspondence and legal documents. Throughout the semester, each student is assigned 2-3 client matters, depending on the complexity of the matters involved. Students are encouraged to think creatively and analytically about how to meet client needs and are required to define, plan and execute specific tasks for each client. The Clinic provides students with work space that includes computer workstations with electronic research capacity and video-equipped space for client meetings.
Through the Clinic, students obtain front-line experience in a range of client matters. For example, students may participate in advising on the appropriate choice of business entity for entrepreneurs in start-up businesses; forming for-profit and nonprofit entities; preparing copyright and trademark applications; drafting operating agreements, bylaws, partnership agreements, shareholders agreements, employment agreements, consulting agreements, or sales agreements; advising on general legal compliance; and filing of applications for federal tax-exemption. Students may provide counsel on intellectual property concerns, regulatory or administrative matters. Students may also provide representation to nonprofit developers on long-term real estate or economic development transactions.
Live-client experience introduces students to the relationship between substantive law and relevant lawyering skills such as interviewing, counseling, planning, drafting, and negotiating.
Students learn the importance of financial and other non-legal factors in guiding and counseling business clients. The skills and experience obtained in the course will serve students throughout their professional careers, especially in practices - such as transactional lawyering, corporate planning, real estate and tax - that call heavily upon planning and drafting abilities.
Who are the clients?
The clients are greater Philadelphia-area entrepreneurs - both for profit and nonprofit, as well as more established nonprofit organizations. Examples of for-profit clients include a local restaurant owner, a husband-wife food processing business, and a single-proprietor consulting business. Examples of nonprofit clients include a church daycare center, an organization to support at-risk youth, and a large community development organization. In a typical semester, the Clinic aims to serve equal numbers of nonprofit and for-profit clients. Assignments accommodate, where possible, particular areas of interest or expertise. Generally, each student has primary responsibility for at least one nonprofit client and one for-profit client.
Who can participate? What are the prerequisites?
The Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic enrolls a limited number of randomly-selected upper-year students each semester. Due to the popularity of the course, enrollment is usually limited to third-year and LL.M. students. However, second-year students are eligible for enrollment. Corporations is a prerequisite for enrollment in the course.
How many credits does the Clinic offer?
The Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic offers 5 credits.
How do I enroll?
Registration for the Clinic is part of the regular Law School course registration. For more information, stop by the Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic in the Gittis Center for Clinical Legal Studies, located on the ground floor of Silverman Hall, or call 215.898.8044, or email elc@law.upenn.edu.
|
