When Charles Lovejoy was launching his Bloody Mary mix business, he listened to advice from his entrepreneur sister to do things right from the beginning. That meant developing a business plan, formally incorporating, and hiring a lawyer to create the structure he envisioned, where five percent of the company’s profits would go to charity.
That legal work would have been expensive for a start-up, but Lovejoy was fortunate to have a resource by his side: Minnesota Law’s Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. Students from the clinic completed integral legal work when Lovejoy started the Roseville company in 2017 and again in 2023, setting Lovejoy up for success. From securing trademark protection to developing employment agreements, students on Lovejoy’s legal team have made a significant difference for the company.
“The clinic is a valuable tool for small business owners like us to get simple legal things out of the way,” Lovejoy says. “It’s reassuring to know that you can go somewhere, and people will be there to help it— it’s awesome to feel like you have a legitimate business.”
While business clients gain legal counsel and assistance from the clinic’s student lawyers, students who enroll in the course also benefit from the experience through hands-on learning that helps them build skills for diverse legal careers. During the one-semester clinic, 16 students team up to provide essential legal work for a variety of business clients, under the supervision of a practicing attorney.
The clinic gives students important practice opportunities to complete bread-and-butter transactional work. Students also dive into wide-ranging legal concerns, such as selecting a business entity and creating corporate governance structures, says Kiri Somermeyer, executive director of the Minnesota Law Corporate Institute, which includes the Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. Students work closely with clients to understand their business and legal needs, then deliver vital legal work that helps budding businesses thrive.
“It’s usually their first chance to be the lawyer,” Somermeyer says. “Students tend to be really invigorated by doing actual legal work. They get to think creatively about how they can use the law to solve problems or minimize risk for these businesses. Students get to have that client interaction and the chance to learn about how business intersects with law. We’re also helping businesses grow, employ people, and enhance the communities in which they operate.”
Mike Fadden ’24 got precisely the experience he sought when he joined the clinic. Knowing that he was headed toward a transactional law career, he wanted to learn to assess clients’ needs and draft legal documents. He and his clinic partners completed a wide range of work for Lovejoy, including negotiating contracts with well-known Minnesota food brands and developing agreements for its employees and independent contractors.
Fadden appreciates that the clinic mirrors law firm practices in approaching projects as a team team and adjusting priorities as clients’ needs evolve. He says he learned critical skills that he is using as a general corporate and mergers and acquisitions associate at Winthrop & Weinstine in Minneapolis.
Practicing the art of communicating with clients was especially key, he says. “It teaches you to know who your audience is. When I’m communicating internally, I know I need to give in-depth information. When it’s with a client it’s more distilled down to the most important details.” Fadden found the clinic experience so worthwhile he stayed on as a student director.
Entrepreneur Sam West was a clinic client who benefited from working with student attorneys. Owner of the hot sauce business Mr. Fuzz’s Fiery Foods and the new MidCity Kitchen in St. Paul, West wanted legal advice about the best ways to structure the company’s commercial kitchen, and event and co-working spaces. He found that his legal team brought fresh thinking and an approach he had not considered. Inspiration struck after clinic participants took a class field trip to MidCity Kitchen and the student lawyers developed rental agreements instead of leases for food entrepreneurs and others wanting to use the entity’s spaces.
“I liked working with the students and supervising attorney— it was a client-centered interaction,” West says. “I felt like they were excited about the small business opportunity. They came and toured the location and spent time here, and they listened a lot. There’s something really fun about working with students who are also in that growth mindset, who are thinking creatively and collaboratively.”
Anthony Rodriguez ’24 enjoyed the dual nature of the clinic program where students learn practical aspects of business law from taxation to negotiation and are paired with real-world clients to activate their learning. Rodriguez joined the clinic to get experience with evaluating clients’ needs and completing meaningful work for them—skills he puts into practice as a trust and estate planning associate attorney for Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis.
As a clinic lawyer, Rodriguez provided legal services to West and a photographer who was transitioning his business from a side hustle to a professional operation. He found it valuable to join forces with fellow students, bouncing ideas off each other to hone their work. “I liked having the final meeting with clients when we delivered the work product,” Rodriguez says. “The rewarding part was seeing their reactions and knowing that this was going to make their life easier and help them as small business owners.”