Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic Partners

In the Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic students learn about the practice of transactional business law by pairing practical instruction in the classroom with service of real-life business clients. Under the supervision of an experienced volunteer business attorney, students provide transaction-based legal assistance to small businesses, nonprofits and entrepreneurs.

Services Provided

The Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic most commonly handles the following types of transactional legal services:

• Choice of entity and entity formation;
• Nonprofit and social enterprise status;
• Ownership distribution, shareholder and member control agreements;
• Intellectual property protection, including copyrights, trademarks, and licensing agreements;
• Contract drafting and review;
• Employment and independent contractor guidance;
• Policy review and drafting;
• Marketing and advertising issues and agreements;
• Review of commercial leases.

Clients of the Clinic

Clients find the Clinic in many ways, including from various referral sources such as: Carlson School of Management; Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD); Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA); Springboard for the Arts, Grow North, Women Venture, and others.

If your organization works with businesses that may be interested in participating in the Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic or you own a business that is seeking the types of legal services above and you think the Clinic might be a good fit for you, please contact CorpInstitute@umn.edu or complete the following form and we’ll get back to you

Clinic Supervising Attorneys 

The Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic maintains a roster of licensed business attorneys in Minnesota who have expressed interest in serving as a Supervising Attorney.  Volunteering with the Clinic is a great volunteer opportunity; it allows lawyers to give back to law students and the University of Minnesota Law School, while providing meaningful pro bono legal work to small businesses, non-profits, and/or entrepreneurs in the local community.

If you are interested in volunteering as a Supervising Attorney with the Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, contact CorpInstitute@umn.edu with your name and practice areas.