The goals of the Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic (L&E Clinic) are:
- To encourage economic growth in Wisconsin by providing quality legal and business assistance to high potential entrepreneurs; and
- To help students reach their career goals through an intellectually stimulating, intensive, hands-on, client focused educational experience
Students participating in the L&E Clinic will:
- Have regular face-to-face client interaction, including interviewing, conducting meetings, preparing communications, drafting documents and counseling clients on real issues facing entrepreneurs and start-up businesses
- Grow their knowledge in areas of law in which they are interested through research and client work
- Routinely interact with other student attorneys for assistance in unfamiliar areas of law to provide higher quality work product
- Interact with lawyers and law firms through a robust outside review process
- Receive coaching and feedback on client management skills, work product, interview skills and client communication
- Receive detailed feedback on content and structure of their writing
Student Qualifications:
- Technical Expertise
- Familiarity with business structures
- Completion of "Business Organizations" preferred
- Other experiences such as business school classes or business experience will be considered
- Familiarity with intellectual property matters
- Completion of "Introduction to Intellectual Property" preferred
- Science background or patent agent status will be considered
- Background in business start-up or entrepreneurship
- Having started or owning a business will be considered
- Work experience in a start-up business will be considered
- Skills and Abilities
- Communication Skills
- Communicates effectively for the audience, both orally and in writing
- Presents effectively when delivering information or ideas
- Presents ideas and expresses opinions to others with confidence
- Results Orientation
- Personal commitment to achieve results with persistence
- Expends extra effort when required to get the job done or meet commitments
- Ability to Prioritize
- Prioritizes and plans work activities
- Adapts plans for changing conditions
- Problem Solving
- Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner
- Gathers and analyzes information skillfully
- Develops alternative approaches and ideas
- Team Work
- Supports and respects the thoughts, opinions and contributions of others in a group
- Accepts and provides feedback in a constructive and considerate manner
- Shares information and expertise
- Manages and resolves conflict when appropriate
Our "normal" cycle is to recruit in the late fall for students to work with us full-time the following summer and then to stay on through the following fall and spring. We prefer to recruit rising 3Ls for our summer program, but will also consider rising 2Ls. We evaluate applicants for background and interest in entrepreneurship, business transactions and/or science. Recruitment is through email to UW Law students and through word of mouth.
We also recruit outside our normal cycle as we have openings or extraordinary need for more student attorneys. Once again, we recruit through email to UW Law students and through word of mouth.
If you’d like to learn more about the program, please feel free to contact us at entrepreneurhelp@law.wisc.edu.
