Clinic: Entrepreneurship/Community Development

• Semester: Fall 2024
• Course ID: 697C
• Credit Hours: 6
• Unique: 28805

Special Instructions

Description

Students must attend a mandatory orientation on Friday, August 30, likely scheduled 1:00 - 4:30 pm.

Taught in the Fall by Frances Leos Martinez, Clinic Director. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. 6 credits (pass/fail) — offered in the Fall and Spring.

The Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic provides students with a unique opportunity to develop business law and problem-solving skills while representing clients operating community enterprises -- small businesses, entrepreneurs, creatives, nonprofit organizations, and community groups.

Students learn how to represent their clients on a broad variety of transactional business law matters. Typical legal matters include:

• assisting businesses with choice of entity decisions
• forming for-profit and nonprofit entities
• applying to the IRS for tax-exempt status
• drafting and negotiating contracts
• providing legal advice to nonprofit boards of directors and staff
• drafting lending and real estate documents
• assisting with intellectual property matters

Clinic students learn how to represent their clients through clinic classes, in-person teamwork, weekly team meetings with their clinic supervisor, and research and initiative on their cases. The Clinic classes emphasize the applicable substantive law; the larger social and theoretical context of the Clinic’s work; and the development of practical lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, negotiating, contract drafting, and public speaking.  

The Clinic class meets on Monday afternoons 2:30-4:30 pm. Three classes will run to 5:30 pm. There is a mandatory orientation class on the first Friday of the semester, from 1:00-4:30 pm. In addition to class, students are required to keep a weekly schedule of 8 in-clinic office hours, over the course of three days from Monday through Friday, between 8:00 am-5:00 pm. The Clinic is a significant time commitment. Students are expected to devote an average of 16-19 hours a week to the Clinic, including class time and clinic case work. Attendance is required at the orientation and all classes and case rounds. Students should also note that teamwork is a key component of clinic case work. Students will be assigned to a team partner with whom they will work during the semester.

Clinic casework is conducted in teams and students will be assigned to the same team for the semester.

Enrollment is by application only. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during early registration as the Clinic fills up quickly. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list if space is unavailable during registration. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. 

There are no prerequisites for this clinic, although a background in business law (such as business associations, real estate, or tax law) will come in handy.

An application is required. For additional information, you may contact the Clinic Director Frances Leos Martinez (fmartinez@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-1222), or the Clinic Program Coordinator (ecdc@law.utexas.edu).