ELC Clinic |
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Entrepreneurial
Law Center
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Entrepreneurial Law Clinic
ELC Course Credit: the ELC is a two semester (fall/spring) course for which students receive two credits per semester (four credits for the year).
ELC Objectives:
- Provide a rigorous and practical educational experience by serving as an inspiration for students interested in transactional law;
- Promote ethical values in transactional lawyers; and
- Provide outreach that connects to communities outside the law school and serves clients that would otherwise remain under-served by the practicing bar.
Click on the below topics to find out more:
- What is Transactional Law and What Do ELC Students Do?
- Who Should Consider Participating in the ELC?
- Who May Enroll In The ELC?
- How are ELC Classes Structured?
- What is the Learning Environment Like?
- Is the ELC Graded?
What is Transactional Law and What Do ELC Students Do?
Legal practice is traditionally bifurcated between transactional (sometimes called “business” or “corporate”) law and litigation. In the most basic terms, transactional lawyers typically help form entities, draft contracts and help engineer deals between parties. Meanwhile, litigators generally assist where a conflict arises that will be resolved some form of dispute resolution (such as the courts or arbitration). As with most distinctions, the transactional/litigation dichotomy is not analytically perfect but is nonetheless useful. ELC students work on the transactional side of this divide.
During the year that students are enrolled in the ELC, they provide transactional legal services to clients in connection with the founding and/or development of a small business. Typical tasks include incorporating an entity, drafting contracts (such as employment or licensing agreements), and developing strategies for intellectual property protection. Please see the "Info for Entrepreneurs" page for further information on what the ELC does and does not do.
Who Should Consider Participating in the ELC?
The ELC is best suited for students with an interest in practicing (or at least gaining experience) in transaction-side law and/or becoming involved in the entrepreneurial community. The Clinic’s opportunities will be especially rewarding for students who believe they may utilize the experience in future positions, such as in a law firm practice, in a company’s in-house position, or perhaps as an entrepreneur. Please do not expect a perfect correlation between workload and credit; as with most clinics, the work for this course may exceed the credit you receive.
Transactional attorneys for entrepreneurs and start-up entities encounter client needs that span a variety of expansive substantive areas. One day a company requires intellectual property advice, the next day a tax issue arises, then an employment law issue surfaces, and that is followed by a securities question. Each of these disparate substantive areas— as well as other legal spheres implicated by entrepreneurial activity— form the grist for entire law school courses. It is not expected that ELC students will have pre-existing expertise across all of these areas. Indeed, a valuable aspect of the ELC is to expose students to a range of issues likely to arise during a company’s life cycle and, in turn, help connect and demystify the concepts and arcane terminology that sometimes accompany a company’s significant legal events.
Who May Enroll In The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic?
The ELC is available to full-time 2L and 3L students at the University of Colorado Law School. Enrollment for the 2006-2007 school year is capped at 12 students. As a practical matter, ELC students should have completed or be concurrently enrolled in Corporations (LAWS 6211 OR 6251) or Agency, Partnership, and the LLC (LAWS 6201). While not a prerequisite, in the event that the ELC is oversubscribed, preference will be given to students who enroll in the fall 2006 course, Entrepreneurial Venture Capital: Private Equity (LAWS 7271). Another course that is not a prerequisite, Survey of Business Enterprise Taxation (LAWS 6117), is one that students have found valuable in connection with ELC work.
To be eligible, a student must have completed or be enrolled in two of the following courses.
- Agency, Partnership, and the LLC;
- Corporations;
- Securities;
- Seminar on Corporate Law;
- Law and Finance for Entrepreneurs;
- Accounting Issues for Lawyers;
- Introduction to Intellectual Property Law;
- Patent Law;
- Trademark and Unfair Competition;
- Copyright;
- Entrepreneurial Venture Capital: Private Equity;
- Telecommunications Law; and/or
- International Business Transactions.
Students in the clinic meet for two hours on a weekly basis. The ELC provides support and training for students across a range of legal disciplines by combining practice and pedagogy in each class meeting: half of the class period generally focuses on a selected topic and accompanying readings (often with the assistance of an expert guest from the local entrepreneurial community); the other half focuses on client interaction and work product for the ELC. Through these means the ELC exposes students to a range of issues, demystifies arcane terminology, and sensitizes students so they can identify issues on which a client may need specialized advice. Overall, classes are structured so that ELC students gain practical experience by working on projects for clients while simultaneously situating that work by learning about the significant legal events that comprise a company’s life cycle.
What is the learning environment like?
When a new client is selected to participate in the ELC, students are assigned to assist the client with the supervision of a practicing attorney. Students serve as the primary point of contact for their clients. Once clients describe the services they seek, student attorneys work directly with their supervisors to draft, revise, and finalize documents. From time-to-time, supervisors engage the expertise of attorneys specializing in certain legal fields, such as income tax, real property, and intellectual property law in order to assist with clients’ special needs.
Yes. A student who completes the requirements of the ELC earns two course credits per semester. These credits are on the basis of a grade. The following is a list of items on which the grade may be based:
- Attendance and participation at weekly ELC meetings;
- Quality of drafting, advice and client-handling skills;
- Professionalism and commitment to clients;
- Memoranda describing and summarizing status of client work;
- Analytical and problem solving skills;
- Quality of work in fall simulation activity; and
- Student presentation and accompanying paper concerning a client project.
