The University of Colorado at Boulder Law School

Entrepreneurial Law Clinic

• Professor, Entrepreneurial Law Clinic: Brad Bernthal
• Course Number and Description
• Mission
• Clients
• Scope
• Type of Legal Assistance
• Enrolling in the ELC
• Info for Entrepreneurs
  • Becoming a Client of the ELC
  • Starting a Startup Guide (information for CU Researchers)
  • Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship
• Student Resources
• Entrepreneurial Law Certificate
• ELC Clinical Advisors

Mission

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC) provides law students with unique, practical experience in transactional law while offering valuable legal services without charge to local businesses that lack access to venture capital or angel investor resources. The Clinic's clients include graduate students, professors, local entrepreneurs, and start-up companies. Third-year Colorado Law students staff the Clinic during the academic year under the joint supervision of a full-time clinician and experienced attorneys from top law firms in Boulder and Denver. Students interact directly with clients to provide legal advice on a wide range of business-law issues including entity formation, intellectual property, employment, and contracts. By assisting entrepreneurs when they need help the most, the ELC provides Colorado Law students hands-on opportunities to make a difference in the community.
The ELC pursues complementary student and client goals:

• Provide a rigorous and practical educational experience by serving as an inspiration for students interested in transactional law
• Promote ethical values in transactional lawyers
• Provide outreach that connects to communities outside the law school and serves clients that would otherwise remain under-served by the practicing bar

Clients

ELC clients include individual entrepreneurs, start-up companies, students (such as the winners of the CU-Denver BARD Center for Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition), and entrepreneurs with special needs. The Clinic also assists in the process of commercializing University-developed technology by representing faculty members and companies working with the CU’s Technology Transfer Office and provides legal services to members of the local start-up community, such as the Colorado Technology Incubator (CSTI).
Representative Clients:

• Clinic students recently helped two University of Colorado researchers form an entity committed to catalyzing renewable fuels and chemicals that are environmentally friendlier than petroleum-based products. The company has since received funding from two Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms and now has an exclusive University of Colorado license to move forward with its technology.
• University Parent works with colleges and universities across the U.S. to help parents of their students navigate the world of “university parenthood.” The Company was founded and continues to be run by Boulder resident Sarah Schupp who worked with the clinic in the early stages of the Company.
• Everlater.com is a place for users to record travel experiences, share them with friends and family, and discover new travel ideas from social networks and other travelers. Everlater worked with the clinic at the inception of its business concerning entity formation and other matters.
• Ski Fitting Science LLC is a custom ski fitter and manufacturer that is currently in the process of opening operations headquartered in Longmont, Colorado. It was started by an MBA student at the University of Colorado and is developing its business.

Scope

The ELC is a graded two-semester course (four credit hours for the year); work may exceed credit received. Each clinic is limited to 12 students. Class time is divided between selected topic and accompanying readings (often with expert guests), and client interaction and work product. Students are supervised by the ELC Director in collaboration with generous contributions from attorneys in the Boulder and Denver communities. Students work directly with clients to provide advice, draft documents, and research legal issues.

Type of Legal Assistance

ELC exposes students to legal issues often faced by young entities, such as entity formation, financing, employment agreements, and exit strategies. See a list of Legal Issues Handled & Not Handled by ELC.

Representative projects and initiatives include:

• Clinic students assisted a client who built a Denver-based business around a dessert recipe from her Mexican village. The Clinic helped the client form a business entity and develop a viable intellectual property strategy around the secret process for creating her products.
• Each year clinic students lead community outreach presentations to classes of Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs. Presentations concern how to select and form a legal entity when starting a business. Students work with the clinic supervisor to develop and refine their presentations, then deliver the presentation through a Spanish speaking translator.
• A third year law student catalogued software, hardware, and telecom-related high technology companies in the Front Range. This research on the so-called “mile high tech” scene provided the framework for governor Bill Ritter’s March 2009 announcement that these companies are the fifth pillar of Colorado’s economic policy.

Enrolling in the ELC

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (especially the academic-year ELC) serves as a capstone transactional experience for law students. Applications to the summer ELC and the academic-year ELC are collected each spring in the weeks preceding registration for enrollment. The Registrar sends notice to rising 2L and 3L students with instructions for application. Qualified applicants are identified through an application process. Information is elicited in two broad areas:

• Substantive course background. Applicants are not required (no is it desirable) to take only courses relevant to the ELC. By enrollment time, however, applicant should have completed at least three courses relevant to the ELC (for guidance on relevancy, see courses required for the Entrepreneurial Law Certificate) and, additionally, plan to take additional relevant courses during the third year.
• Demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship, including:
• Pursuit of the Entrepreneurial Law Certificate, a joint JD/MBA degree, or activity in campus entrepreneurship through the Silicon Flatirons Center, the New Venture Challenge, the Deming Center, or other entrepreneurship-oriented organizations; and/or
• Relevant personal and professional experience such as internships, externships, clerkships, or experience as part of start-up or emerging business.

The academic-year ELC typically admits 12 qualified students. Rising 3Ls are admitted to the academic-year ELC based on written applications. Selection of qualified applicants may be completed via a lottery system. Qualified applicants who do not directly get entry to the course are placed on a wait list.

The summer ELC typically admits 6-8 students each year. Rising 3Ls are given priority into the summer ELC and rising 2Ls are admitted to the summer ELC on a case-by-case basis as space permits.