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	IJ Clinic Director Beth Milnikel, left, and IJ Clinic client Alex Morales, of Smartmouth Design meet in his woodworking shop with IJ Clinic law students Simon Rasin and Shawna Doran.

What Can I Learn in the IJ Clinic?
The IJ Clinic is the Law School's first and only practical training ground for law students who are interested in transactional work generally and entrepreneurship specifically. The IJ Clinic involves students in every phase of client representation. Students interview applicants and help decide which clients to accept and engage; travel into the city's neighborhoods to visit the clients' businesses and community organizations; research and regulatory issues, prepare filings, and draft or review contracts; and most importantly, have substantial strategic input into the direction of the clients' transactions.

The students' actual legal work includes but is not limited to the following types of activities:

• Researching all aspects of transactional and regulatory matters, and other matters related to the representation of entrepreneurs;
• Advising clients on general strategy, including advising them on business organization, employment, tax, intellectual property, contracting and insurance decisions;
• Drafting and filing entity-level organizational documents such as articles of organization, bylaws, and operating agreements;
• Helping clients comply with administrative and tax requirements;
• Drafting and reviewing contracts between clients and employees, vendors, subcontractors, suppliers and distributors, lenders, and landlords;
• Navigating clients through licensing and regulatory requirements, including by representing them before administrative agencies.

Who is Eligible?

Eligibility begins in the second year. A lottery is held every spring to determine participation in the Law School's clinical programs. As spots open up, students are invited in the order determined by the list. The list is posted on the Clinical Announcements board in the Law School passageway between the library and the Kane Center.

Second-year students begin their clinical work at the beginning of the Winter Quarter. Students who work in the IJ Clinic during their second year are automatically invited back for their third year. Third-year students invited after the lottery may begin working in the Clinic fall quarter.

IJ Clinic students are required to take Entrepreneurship & The Law, a three-credit seminar that meets during the Fall quarter.

The general aim of the course is to introduce students to entrepreneurship as a subject and to train them as legal advisors to entrepreneurs. As a result, the course covers such diverse legal areas as business organization, administrative and tax law, drafting, intellectual property, and real estate. The course focuses specifically on micro- and entry-level enterprises, which are generally fewer than two years old and capitalized for less than $100,000, but much of what is taught is applicable to larger businesses as well.

Specifically, the course provides instruction in three areas:

(1) The Theory of Entrepreneurship. The initial part of the course studies the multidisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship. It also reviews the basic law covering the area, including constitutional and regulatory law governing entrepreneurs.
(2) Practical Legal Skills. Throughout the course students will learn the basic skills of an effective advisor—principally interviewing, counseling, issue-spotting and drafting.
(3) Survey of the Law. To advise an entrepreneur, students must be familiar with a vast array of law, but certain subjects stand out as the most important. The major part of the course explores those subjects and requires practical exercises for the students to implement the theory.

How Many Quarters Can I Participate?
Students are expected to participate a minimum of two quarters (i.e., until the end of Spring Quarter second year) and encouraged to participate five quarters (i.e., until the end of the third year).

Can I Get Credit for My Work in the IJ Clinic?
The Law School grants students 1 credit for every term in which they work 40 hours with a maximum of three credits per term and a maximum of six credits during their stay at the Law School.

How Can I Learn More?
Feel free to stop by the IJ Clinic, which is in the southeast corner of the first floor of the Arthur Kane Center (K108-K111), or call at (773) 834-3129.

Information for Law Students About the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship

The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship