1. Seminar. Each week, all ELC students meet for two 80-minute seminars. Seminar topics survey themes relevant to transactional lawyering and may include drafting, client communications, and professional responsibility, among others. Case studies, simulation exercises and guest speakers are featured in a number of seminars. In addition, the seminar devotes time to discussing student-client issues in a “case rounds” format.
2. Client Work. Each ELC student is assigned 2-3 client matters throughout the semester. Assignments accommodate, where possible, particular areas of student interest or expertise expressed through pre-class surveys. Client work is the largest time component of ELC participation and requires students to interview and counsel clients, develop strategies, tactics and timelines for achieving client objectives, manage client communications, research legal issues, draft professional correspondence and legal documents, and more. The Gittis Center provides students with work space that includes computer workstations with electronic research capacity and video-equipped space for client meetings, as well as professional support staff.
3. Supervisory Meetings. Each ELC student has a regular hour-long weekly meeting with the ELC faculty to discuss progress on client work. The meetings offer students opportunities to discuss roadblocks encountered in their work, brainstorm pathways forward, evaluate options for advising clients, address practical considerations and concerns, explore ethical implications of their lawyering choices, identify client management issues, and discuss the student’s evolving understanding of the role of a transactional lawyer.
4. Community Workshops. Each semester, ELC students work with a team of colleagues to prepare and present an educational session on a legal topic affecting entrepreneurs. Workshops typically occur mid-semester at the Carey Law School or in the community. Workshop preparation and attendance provides students with an important foundation in some of the substantive law they will use to counsel their clients; consequently, attendance is mandatory.
5. Reflection. Uniformly, the Carey Law School’s clinics challenge students to confront problems with dynamic legal, practical, ethical, and personal dimensions and to forge solutions in real time. Ultimately, clinics provide students with an entirely unique vantage point from which to consider the challenges, rewards, power, and responsibility attendant to their chosen profession. Periodic reflection assignments encourage students to reflect critically on their experiences inhabiting the role of lawyer, and assist students in cultivating lasting strategies for professional development and personal satisfaction.

The ELC offers 7 credits. The course is graded without a curve. Students are expected to work approximately 20 hours per week through the semester inside and outside of class. Grades take into account attendance, class participation, adherence to clinic operating procedures, oral and written expression, assignments, collaboration, work product, project management, client management and counseling, professionalism, and demonstrated diligence, preparation, effort, and resourcefulness. Recognizing that students are still preparing to become lawyers, the ELC assesses and rewards professional growth and critical reflection as well as technical competence.

While all client work is performed under careful faculty supervision, ELC students assume primary responsibility for all matters affecting their clients. As an ELC student you will:

• Manage client relationships by taking responsibility for all forms of client communication including arranging meetings and conference calls with your clients, developing a sophisticated understanding of your clients and their businesses through interviews and other communications, and managing client expectations
• Apply legal analysis to real client problems by identifying legal issues and risks raised by your clients’ business plans, considering an array of approaches for resolving and mitigating them, and then using your best judgment to select and execute a course of action
• Develop transactional lawyering skills by developing a realistic plan for achieving a definitive conclusion to your clients’ problems, then working with your client, your ELC colleagues, and your faculty supervisor to execute your plan by performing factual due diligence, researching relevant law, summarizing succinctly your conclusions and recommendations in memoranda and conversations, drafting contracts and other legal instruments, and counseling your clients
• Use your education to make an economic impact on society 

Our most effective ELC students are characterized by their openness to learning, and high levels of commitment and intellectual engagement, rather than any particular subject matter expertise or practical background.

Registration is open to all second and third year students, but 3L students are given enrollment priority. While there are no prerequisites for enrollment apart from completion of the first year curriculum, Professional Responsibility, Corporations, Introduction to Intellectual Property, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, Contract Drafting, and other Legal Practice Skills offerings, the Wharton Certificate in Management, and other Center on Professionalism offerings may provide useful preparation for certain client engagements.

Students are encouraged to consult Areas of Focus relevant to their course of study and career objectives in the Curricular Compass tool to develop ideas about complementary substantive courses.

Students enroll in clinical course offerings through the regular enrollment lottery during Advance Registration. It is recommended that 2L students preference the clinical courses high during Advance Registration since 3L students are given enrollment priority.

LLMs are also eligible for ELC registration, and will receive special registration instructions by email regarding the writing sample, resume and interview with ELC Faculty required prior to being deemed eligible for enrollment through the registration lottery. Students are encouraged to consult the Curricular Compass tool for answers to many registration FAQ’s.