Small Business Legal Clinic

Description:

Class size limited to 10 students.

The Small Business Legal Clinic (SBLC) will provide valuable “hands-on” legal training to second and third-year law students, who will represent low-income small business owmers in the Portland area. The SBLC will provide business transactional legal training in the areas of entity selection and formation; contract drafting in a wide variety of areas; commercial leases; intellectual property; regulatory compliance; financing (including loans) and employment law. Students will learn to interview and counsel small business clients, draft and negotiate contracts and leases, advise on intellectual property issues, and form new business entities both for-profit and nonprofit. Students will participate in a weekly two-hour seminar covering substantive issues and spend a minimum of 8 hours per week at the Small Business Legal Clinic. In addition to substantive business law, seminars will provide opportunities for students to discuss any challenges and lessons learned in connection with their client representative, and to engage in role-playing sessions to hone their interviewing, negotiating and counseling skills, as well as to learn ethics, professionalism and conflicts issues critical to an effective business law practice. The SBLC will accept only those matters which maximize the students’ opportunities to learn business lawyering skills and which otherwise meet the SBLC’s intake guidelines. Additional information about the SBLC can be found at http://www.lclark. edu/dept/org/sblc. html.

The Small Business Legal Clinic structure will mirror that of the Law School's Civil Practice Legal Clinic. It is a Pass/No Pass course, with no final examination or paper requirement. It is a 4 credit course which requires each participant to spend 8 hours per week at the SBLC office. Outside reading or other preparation may be required, typically not exceeding two hours per week. Students will be evaluated on written exercises performed as weekly assignments, class participation, and attendance at and performance in the weekly 8-hour clinical practicum. Since students participate in the representation of clients, regular attendance at scheduled times is required.

The Small Business Legal Clinic will have sections that meet at the following days and times:

Monday/Wednesday:9:00 am to 1:00 pm Monday/Wendesday:1:00 pm to 5:00 pm Tuesday/Thursday:9:00 am to 1:00 pm

Tuesday Thursday:1:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Students should register for their preferred time. The weekly seminars will be held on campus on Fridays from 9:00 to 11:00 am.

Please note: there will be NO CLINIC HOURS for the first 2 weeks of classes. Instead, we will have all day "Boot Camp" on the first two Fridays of the semester. Boot Camp will be from 9:00am until 5:00pm, during which we will be covering important information/training you will need before you can begin meeting with clients.

Attendance at Boot Camp is mandatory: NO EXCEPTIONS. If you have a conflict, you must either resolve it, or drop the course. (Note: this means that you will not have to report to the SBLC for clinical hours until the 3rd week of the term.)

The SBLC's street address is 422 NW Everett, Portland. This is a beautifully renovated building in Old Town in downtown Portland. Participation in the SBLC does not qualify for the professionalism requirement.

Students may qualify for a B paper with prior written permission from the clerical law professor

Prerequisite: Business Associations I