The best part? Witnessing the excitement on clients' faces when they explain their business idea to me and knowing that my work positively affects them.
The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC) is an innovative clinic serving entrepreneurs and nonprofits throughout the West Coast, with a focus on the Pacific Northwest. The ELC partners law students with pro bono attorneys to provide critical early-stage legal counseling to entrepreneurs, small business owners, nonprofits and University of Washington affiliated faculty, researchers and students. The ELC also partners with various University of Washington early-stage entrepreneurial programs, including the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, CoMotion and Creative Destruction Lab, to provide early-stage startups with legal services and help ignite growth.
The ELC brings community learning in collaboration with various University of Washington and Seattle-based organizations through speaking engagements, authorship and presentations on emerging and critical legal and regulatory topics relevant to startups.
Through this unique counseling model, the ELC has become one of the cornerstones of the innovation ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest.
University of Washington Law School students staff the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC) during the academic year and work in teams to counsel several clients throughout the academic year. Students are supervised by practicing attorneys from premier global law firms and Seattle-based corporations and a full-time clinician. Students provide legal advice on a variety of business-law issues. Typical areas of counseling and advice include choice of entity; forming corporations and limited liability companies; drafting shareholder and operating agreements; drafting employment, consulting and intellectual property agreements; regulatory and compliance risk management; counseling clients and completing filings regarding intellectual property matters.
The ELC operates as a transactional and counseling clinic, focusing on delivering comprehensive support to nonprofits and startups through a "legal audit." This audit serves to proactively identify potential issues and critical legal requirements to enable growth and development of nascent or early-stage companies and continued operations for nonprofits. Typically, teams of attorneys and students work closely with founders and executives to understand short- and long-term business objectives and recommend near-term legal risk management solutions, provided via a confidential report usually distributed at the end of each academic quarter. This report highlights potential legal concerns and offers guidance on how to address them effectively. Additionally, it outlines strategies to establish systems that limit or prevent common pitfalls in business formation and growth. Our standard representation is exclusively dedicated to facilitating this audit process.
Upon mutual written agreement between the startup / nonprofit and the ELC, we may extend our representation to assist in basic entrepreneurship-focused legal services, such as:
Active client work is supported by weekly course work where students learn legal concepts most commonly applied to startups and nonprofits, present on active client matters and participate in discussions with their peers to problem-solve and identify emerging legal issues with respect to their clients.
In addition, student attorneys read entrepreneurial law materials and participate in seminar discussions and problem-solving exercises led by local attorneys and entrepreneurs. Weekly course work focuses on legal and business issues frequently addressed by practicing corporate, transactional and intellectual property attorneys who work with early-stage entrepreneurs, emerging companies and nonprofits.
The Clinical Law program is pleased to announce three incoming clinic directors: Jevan Hutson for Technology Law and Public Policy, Jeannine Lemker for the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic and Nicole McGrath for the Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic.
Learn how the clinic assists low-income entrepreneurs throughout the Pacific Northwest with their business needs while providing real-world experience for the clinic’s students.
Join us Oct. 18 and Nov. 1 for innovative legal lectures on issues affecting entrepreneurs.
Andrew Serafini and Patrick Njeim, partners at Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton, will work with students as part of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic’s participation in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Law School Clinic Certification Program.
Alumna Selena Ng recalls how the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic provided invaluable, real-world experience in meeting the needs of small-business clients.