A Law and Entrepreneurship Program Rooted in Practice

The Law and Entrepreneurship Program (LEP) at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law prepares lawyers for principled entrepreneurship by training them to serve clients and advise founders with the mindset today’s legal market demands. The program is built on three pillars: a transactional law clinic, focused business law coursework, and an interdisciplinary co-curriculum.

 

The Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic

At the center of the program is the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, a law school clinic in which selected student-attorneys represent ventures launched through the Arthur & Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Busch School of Business, as well as local startups and small businesses across Washington, D.C. Clinic students help ventures address the legal issues that often determine whether a company can move beyond its earliest stage, including entity formation, founder agreements, commercial contracts, intellectual property, and employment matters. Through this entrepreneurship clinic, LEP students learn to ask hard questions before crises make answers urgent, and they graduate with a transactional portfolio and a practiced instinct for business-oriented, client-centered service.

Learn how the Columbus School of Law and the Busch School of Business work together in this episode of Cardinal Perspectives. 

Business Law and Transactional Law Coursework

The program’s coursework gives aspiring business law and startup law attorneys a practical toolkit for modern practice, including accounting and finance for lawyers, business associations, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation, and negotiations.

Experiential Learning for Startup and Small Business Counsel

The co-curriculum connects students with the people who build, finance, and advise entrepreneurial ventures: a speaker series, an entrepreneur-in-residence, externships with startups and growth-stage firms, and competitions that place students in conversation with founders, investors, and the lawyers who counsel them.

Preparing Lawyers to Advise Founders

Grounded in Catholic University’s distinctive understanding of the human person and the common good, and committed to the Columbus School of Law’s mission of graduating students who are practice-ready on day one, the Law and Entrepreneurship Program gives students the skills, experience, and vision to counsel founders and serve clients at the working edge of business law.

To learn more or apply, contact Professor Alexander J. Hoffarth via email at hoffarth@law.edu.

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