Entrepreneurial Law Clinic

Clinic Director

Jennifer Fan
Director, Entrepreneurial Law Clinic

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.
— Zoe Wong, J.D. ’17 and former ELC Student

About the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC) is an innovative clinic serving entrepreneurs throughout the Pacific Northwest. The ELC teams law and business students with pro bono attorneys and business advisors. Together they provide critical early stage legal and business counseling to technology entrepreneurs, small business owners, social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and University of Washington and Institute for Translational Health Sciences faculty researchers. By providing such counseling, the ELC has become one of the cornerstones of the innovation ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest. The ELC also partners with CoMotion, Life Science Washington and various community organizations to give presentations on various topics of interest to startups that are open to the public.

Projects

The ELC is a transactional and counseling clinic. Our services center on providing startups with a comprehensive "legal and business audit" that will help them identify issues before they become serious problems. We provide startups with a confidential report, generally at the end of the academic quarter. This report will also provide guidance on how to proceed to remedy potential problems and/or establish systems to limit or prevent standard business formation and growth pitfalls. Our standard representation includes a commitment only to this audit process.

Upon mutual written agreement between the startup and ELC, we may extend our representation to assist in basic entrepreneurship-focused legal service, such as:

  • Forming a corporation, limited liability company (LLC) or other legal business entity as appropriate
  • Filing simple intellectual property (IP) documents such as provisional patent applications, copyright registrations and trademark registration applications
  • Reviewing, negotiating and/or drafting contracts such as commercial leases and loans, vendor agreements, services agreements or employment agreements
  • Assisting in compliance with state and local business licenses and taxes
  • Drafting and execution of trademark and copyright registrations, provisional patent applications and licensing or assignment agreements
  • IP counseling regarding branding, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, freedom to operate, unfair competition, antitrust, publicity rights and privacy rights. The ELC is part of the USPTO Law School Clinic Certification Program in both patents and trademarks.

Related Publications

  • Jennifer S. Fan, Employees as Regulators: The New Private Ordering in High Technology Companies, 2019 Utah L. Rev. 973-1026.
  • Jennifer S. Fan, Catching Disruption: Regulating Corporate Venture Capital, 2018 Colum. Bus. L. Rev. 341-425
  • Jennifer S. Fan, Regulating Unicorns: Disclosure and the New Private Economy, 57 B.C. L. Rev. 583-642 (2016)
  • Jennifer S. Fan, Coming of Age: Innovation Districts and the Role of Law Schools, 22 Clinical L. Rev. 91-112 (2015)
  • Jennifer S. Fan, Institutionalizing the USPTO Law School Clinic Certification Program for Transactional Law Clinics, 19 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 327-59 (2015)
  • Jennifer S. Fan, Woke Capital: The Role of Corporations in Social Movements, 9 Harv. Bus. L. Rev. 441-94 (2019).
  • Jennifer S. Fan, Innovating Inclusion: The Impact of Women on Private Company Boards, 46 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 345-413 (2019).

Entrepreneurial Law Clinic News

desk with laptop

Trainings, consults available for entrepreneurs and BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women business, nonprofit owners

The free negotiation trainings and legal consults, which are available to register for now, are designed to help entrepreneurs and owners navigate corporate, employment and IP law issues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Closed sign on door

Initiative announces award of 18 COVID-19 economic recovery research grants

UW Law Professor Jennifer Fan, along with Foster School of Business Professor Elizabeth Umphress, will research COVID-19 recovery strategies for minority-owned businesses.

Clinic curates COVID-19 resources for businesses and nonprofits

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic's expansive COVID-19 Resource List is designed to help organizations find and leverage application information and services during the pandemic.

Clinic means business

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic provides mission-critical legal counseling to up-and-coming businesses, inventors and entrepreneurs.

The Seattle Strong Coffee team from left: Brian Wipfler, BA Business administration '18; Evan Oeflein, BA Business Administration '18; Emileigh A. Thylin, master’s in Entrepreneurship '18; and Colin Evans, master’s in Computer Science In Progress

Entrepreneurial Law Clinic provides critical early stage legal, business counseling

Students help startups, small businesses prevent standard formation and growth pitfalls