New Law Program for Entrepreneurs
PORTLAND, Ore. -- If you are an entrepreneur launching a small business, you are not alone. Companies with fewer than 500 employees account for 99.5 percent of all U.S. businesses and produce 50 percent of private sector output. Yet most law schools train law students to work in large, public corporations.
To address the legal needs of the fast-growing sector of small and emerging businesses, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College is offering what it believes is a unique business law certificate.
Students, depending on interest, can pursue a "Certificate in General Business Law" or a "Certificate in Small and Emerging Business Law." The law school already offers certificates in tax law and in environmental and natural resources law. Faculty designed the Business Law Program specifically to include issues of real concern to small and emerging businesses, notes Jennifer Johnson, professor of law at Lewis & Clark's Northwestern School of Law.
"This is a growing field of legal specialization," she emphasizes, "as is demonstrated by the recent innovation of law firm practice groups to serve small and emerging business entities."
"To complement our traditional business courses," says Brad Lynott, director of the business law program, "we've expanded our curriculum to offer additional transactional courses and a new emphasis on small and emerging business law."
"It's exciting," says Knute Gregg '98 who works as an associate attorney for CFI Pro Services Inc., a small, fast-emerging business that makes software for financial institutions. "I'm envious of the students who get to take advantage of it," Gregg says.
While at the law school, Gregg concentrated on business law, worked as articles editor of The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law, and watched the business program evolve. Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College will distribute its fourth issue of The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law in late January. The journal, the first of its kind in the nation, is attracting articles from renowned scholars from throughout the country.
"The nature of legal issues facing small businesses is distinctly different from those facing large corporations," Gregg states. "Small business law requires a different kind of relationship between lawyers and businesses."
A class on cyberspace law awakened Gregg "to the reality that as lawyers we have to change the way we do things. Technology forces us to make fundamental changes."
The law school carefully structured the program to provide a meaningful option for highly-committed students, Lynott emphasizes. To qualify for the certificate, students must demonstrate superior performance in introductory courses such as business associations, taxation and commercial law as well as in specialized areas of business law. In addition, students must maintain a "B" or better grade point average (3.00) in certificate courses and write two substantial research papers on business law.
The Business Law Program includes basic and advanced courses that explore issues relating to small and emerging business entities as well as public corporations. In addition, seminars and advanced courses cover venture capital, the start-up business, the family firm, commercial transactions, and tax and intellectual property. The new certificate program and The Journal of Small and Emerging Law are only two of several innovations in the Business Law Program. A new advisory committee is helping to develop an intellectual property law program. The legal clinic now offers work in intellectual property, entity selection, bankruptcy and debtor/creditor issues. And the law school sponsors an annual Business Law Roundtable that brings businesses and law students together to discuss legal issues.
"The goal of all of this activity is to educate top-quality business lawyers," Lynott emphasizes.
"Our emphasis on business law, and particularly on small and emerging businesses, is a wonderful complement to our longstanding excellence in environmental law," says James Huffman, dean of the law school. "Together these two programs give our students a comprehensive exposure to the central legal issues of our time." Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College is ranked as the top law school in the nation for environmental and natural resource law.
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Contact: Jean Kempe-Ware, Director of Public Relations, (503) 768-7963, [email protected]
Brad Lynott, Director of Business Law Program, (503) 768-6801
Jennifer Johnson Professor of Law (503) 768-6626
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