Entrepreneurial Law Clinic

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC) is a program of the University of Washington School of Law and the UW Business School. The ELC teams law and MBA students with pro bono attorneys to provide legal and business advice to: low income microentrepreneurs; entrepreneurs in economically distressed communities; and pre-funded high tech start-ups.

The mission of the ELC is threefold: to promote economic development in Washington by assisting entrepreneurs who face significant economic barriers to success through preventive legal services that minimize risk and reduce operating costs, to provide real-life education to UW students in transactional law, counseling and business, and to provide meaningful pro bono opportunities for transactional lawyers. Last quarter students helped five clients with issues relating to tax law, intellectual property law, and corporate securities law.

Entrepreneurial Law in the News

• Clinic Helps Small Businesses Help Themselves - KCBA Bulletin
  The King County bar can play a role in ensuring that small businesses survive by sharing their expertise with the UW Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, which works to identify low-income, minority- and immigrant-owned businesses that would benefit from pro bono legal assistance.
• Law School Clinic to Work with New UW Health Science Research Institute
  Under a new NIH grant award, the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic at the UW School of Law will be part of a new team dedicated to working with the UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences.
• UW law students assist small-business owners - Puget Sound Business Journal
  The UW law school's Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, started last year with seed money from a trio of foundations, pairs teams of third-year law and MBA students with law professors and volunteer attorneys to give transactional law assistance to small businesses and nonprofit organizations.
• Students Experience Business Law Up Close - Campaign UW
  The University of Washington's new Entrepreneurial Law opportunities for students interested in business law and the Clinic has given students like Daniel Heu-Weller a chance to gain hands-on experience with business clients while still in school.