

A partner program of the Eller College of Management, McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, and James E. Rogers College of Law.

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Mock Law Firm

The University of Arizona McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship within the Eller College of Management is pleased to announce a Business / Law Exchange Initiative: the Mock Law Firm. Follow a link below or scroll down for all information:

Overview
Key Goals
Schedule
Key Personnel

Overview

The Mock Law Firm program uniquely advances a university entrepreneurship environment to create a dynamic, yet highly scalable and transferable model for learning and teaching among both entrepreneurship and law students focusing on innovation related practice. This partnership of the colleges of law and business will create a mock law firm environment, with new venture entrepreneurship teams serving as the mock law firm’s client pool. The two groups learn from one another key the skills and knowledge to make them successful in their chosen fields. The relevance of this pedagogy in the 21st century knowledge economy is considerable.

Unlike law clinics, which limit on-on-one engagement among law students and clients, mock law firm students engage with new/nascent level firms from the earliest business development phase and through innovation exploration and actual venture planning, development, funding applications, and launch. In an experiential learning capacity, law students gain knowledge of the needs and challenges of entrepreneurial firms at all phases, adding significant value to the education of students in specialties ranging from patent to corporate law.

Entrepreneurship students likewise receive valuable information and experience at the earliest stages of concept exploration, allowing them to better assess the potential of new knowledge-sets, as well as to engage with the legal community on an ongoing basis and to include legal issues and considerations in strategy and operations/management phases. Traditional law/legal adjunct models of entrepreneurship education have positioned faculty/adjuncts to bring in legal assistance when warranted, but do not provide ongoing engagement through all phases. Other difficulties exist in duplicating a real world exposure to legal counsel within entrepreneurship studies. This approach provides the best of both worlds for these two student groups.

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Key Goals

Law

Law students gain practical experience counseling clients involved in simulated start-up ventures
Law students learn how to apply their legal skills and knowledge in a context that requires them to integrate their knowledge from several areas of the law (e.g., Corporate Law, Intellectual Property Law, Tax Law)
Law students develop the substantive legal and business knowledge and skills needed to work with entrepreneurs and start-up companies, possibly including when to take an equity stake in lieu of traditional payment

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship students learn how to engage the legal community throughout all stages of venture planning
Entrepreneurship students learn common legal issues/elements of new ventures, including basics of IP, early in the venture planning life
Entrepreneurship students are positioned to plan (strategically, operationally, and financially) for IP and other relevant legal issues along side all other elements of the venture plan (i.e., financials, marketing and sales, operations, etc.)

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Schedule

Semester	Law	Entrepreneurship
I: Spring	General: Co-requisite courses, IP Transactions, Corporate Tax, and Law & Entrepreneurship taught (students must take at least one), as well new, 1-unit course, “Entrepreneurship Law Practicum I” specific to the law/entrepreneurship exchange. Teaching goal, general: Provide law students with the essential background knowledge to enable them to counsel students in the entrepreneurship program effectively. Law/entrepreneurship exchange element: Late semester, students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Law Practicum I course develop and make a presentation to entrepreneurship students on IP, business planning, and tax issues related to early stage venture planning. Teaching goal, law/entrepreneurship exchange: Provides law students an opportunity to synthesize the knowledge they have gained in the co-requisite courses and Entrepreneurship Law Practicum I and afford them the opportunity to draft and present a business development presentation. Course affiliation: None. Law student participation is a required component of Entrepreneurship Law Practicum I and a pre-requisite for Entrepreneurship Law Practicum II.	General: Graduate and undergraduate students application and acceptance to entrepreneurship program. Teaching goal, general: Introduce entrepreneurship students to the fundamentals of idea exploration, elements of a good opportunity vs not good opportunity, importance market, product, and competition knowledge as core of successful venture. Law/entrepreneurship exchange element: Late semester, accepted students participating in entrepreneurship program orientations, focusing on idea and opportunity assessment fundamentals. Law students from IP and EL courses make IP and early stage venture planning presentation. Teaching goal, law/entrepreneurship exchange: Entrepreneurship students learn common legal issues/elements of new ventures, including basics of IP, early in the venture planning life as part of critical market, product, and competition knowledge. Course affiliation: None. Entrepreneurship students participate as prerequisite to program courses.
2: Summer	General: None, no formal law/entrepreneurship exchange activities Law/entrepreneurship exchange: None Course affiliation: None *Other*: Joint law-business internship to advance initiative; may be limited to year one, or ongoing.	General: Entrepreneurship students explore market potential of ideas/innovation as basis for entrepreneurship program project. Individual students pursue ideas, present and select as team. Law/entrepreneurship exchange: None. Entrepreneurship students apply spring semester presentation to assessment of ideas. Course affiliation: None. Entrepreneurship students participate as prerequisite to program courses. *Other*: Possible joint law/business internship to advance initiative. Year one, or ongoing.
3: Fall	General: Law students from Entrepreneurship Law Practicum I are required to take Entrepreneurship Law Practicum II, offered as a two-credit course. Enrolled students work under the leadership of an adjunct faculty member as a mock law firm to “represent” Eller entrepreneurship teams as simulated outside counsel. Law students will prepare mock legal documents, make presentations, and provide general simulated legal counsel to the entrepreneurship student teams. Teaching goals, general: Law students learn how to apply their legal skills and knowledge in a context that requires them to integrate their knowledge from several areas of the law (e.g., Corporate Law, Intellectual Property Law, Tax Law) to counsel clients effectively. Law/entrepreneurship exchange: Law students gain practical experience counseling clients involved in simulated start-up ventures, as well as developing the substantive legal and business knowledge and skills needed to work with entrepreneurs and start-up companies. Teaching goals, law/entrepreneurship exchange: Law students gain experience counseling clients, conducting business meetings and preparing presentations for clients. They will gain knowledge and experience preparing legal documents, such as founders’ agreements and intellectual property opinion letters, as well as preparing memoranda on a variety of business planning issues. Course affiliation: Entrepreneurship Law Practicum II is taught and student work is overseen by a practicing attorney, who is an adjunct professor at the College of Law.	General: Entrepreneurship students progress through innovation, validation, and strategies/executables phases, ending semester with first draft of business plan. Teaching goals, general: Entrepreneurship students learn the importance of building on initial knowledge sets of market, product, and competition knowledge through validation and maturity into actual strategies including marketing and sales plans, financials, exit strategies, operations, plans, including legal and IP elements. Law/entrepreneurship exchange: Entrepreneurship students are exposed to law students and issues through general presentations on routine new venture issues, such as founders agreements, IP, and corporate structure. Entrepreneurship mentors will receive general guidance from law team to equip them to manage routine legal issues, while law students will focus on higher level users, such as those with complex IP relationships, etc. Finally, entrepreneurship program will add legal-issues visibility throughout curriculum. Teaching goals, law/entrepreneurship exchange: Entrepreneurship students learn how to engage the legal community throughout all stages of venture planning and will be positioned to plan (strategically, operationally, and financially) for IP and other relevant legal issues along side all other elements of the venture plan (i.e., financials, marketing and sales, operations, etc.) Course affiliation: Venture Development I. McGuire Capstone course
4: Spring	No formal law/entrepreneurship exchange activities other than the Entrepreneurship Law Practicum I, which prepares law students for supporting the Eller entrepreneurship teams for the following year.	General: Entrepreneurship students focus on continued validation, venture plan advancement, launch simulation, communication skills and training, and interaction with investment community. Program culminates in international, national, and internal business plans competitions. Teaching goals, general: Students learn how to communicate opportunity, what has been learned, and general launch activities such as facilities, space, articles of incorporation, C-level leadership recruiting, and so forth. Law/entrepreneurship exchange: No formal exchange activities. Affiliated course: Venture Development II. McGuire Capstone course

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Key Personnel

Sherry Hoskinson
Co-director, Business / Law Exchange
Director, McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, Eller College of Management
The University of Arizona

David Adelman
Director, Law, Science & Technology Initiatives
Associate Professor of Law, James E. Rogers College of Law
The University of Arizona

Darian Ibrahim
Co-director, Business / Law Exchange
Associate Professor of Law, James E. Rogers College of Law
The University of Arizona

Lawrence Hecker
Adjunct Practitioner Faculty, James E. Rogers College of Law
The University of Arizona

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For further information, please contact us.