Apart from their assigned mod courses, 1L students may only enroll in courses offered as 1L electives. A complete list of these courses can be found on the 1L Elective Listings page. 1L students must use the 1L class number listed on the course description when enrolling.
292A sec. 001 - New Business Community Law Clinic Seminar (Spring 2024)
Instructor: Mariana Berenice Acevedo Nuevo (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
Instructor: William A Kell (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
Instructor: Kelly C Woolfolk (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 2
Grading Designation: Credit Only
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meetings:
M 3:35 PM - 5:25 PM
Location: Law 141
From January 08, 2024
To April 23, 2024
W 3:35 PM - 5:25 PM
Location: Law 141
From January 10, 2024
To January 24, 2024
W 3:35 PM - 4:50 PM
Location: Law 141
From January 31, 2024
To April 17, 2024
Course End: April 23, 2024
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 10
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 12
As of: 07/30 03:46 PM
In the first three weeks of class, students receive intensive training to ready them to counsel small business clients starting in week four. To provide adequate time for this and to make up for time lost to the Martin Luther King Day holiday, the first three Wednesday classes (1/10, 1/17, and 1/24) will end at 5:25 pm instead of 4:50 pm. Afterward, all Wednesday classes will end at the usual 4:50 pm time. Please note this arrangement obviates the need to hold an additional make-up class later in the term. Also note that Monday classes are from 3:35-5:25 for the entire semester.
Course Start: January 8, 2024
Course End: April 23, 2024
The New Business Community Law Clinic is a clinical program in which students assist people starting businesses who can't afford an attorney. The course will prepare students for transactional lawyering and consulting with business clients, but in the larger sense, will demonstrate in-depth what is needed to start a successful business. The course will also examine ethical issues and other critical practice matters for transactional lawyers. Critical questions include:
* What do entrepreneurs need to know about the law in order to survive and thrive?
* How can lawyers effectively assist entrepreneurs, both in dealing with acute legal problems and in planning preventively for the future?
* How can entrepreneurs access legal help that is essential to business success, but so difficult to afford in the first 1-2 years?
* How can lawyers help alleviate historical barriers such as redlining and exclusion from economic development programs that have hindered immigrants and other entrepreneurs of color?
Clinic students will have the opportunity to provide supervised legal help to entrepreneurs from California's Bay Area and Central Valley, in a variety of contexts: 1:1 full service representation, limited service walk-in office hours, and legal trainings. Students may also research and develop content for the New Business Law Clinic’s online legal resource library for entrepreneurs of limited means.
Teaching methods include classroom lectures, panels, and simulations. A variety of transactional legal areas will be examined and applied, particularly in the context of assisting new businesses. Areas will include, but not be limited to: risk management, contracts, intellectual property, taxation, permits and licenses. Areas of business management will also be examined, including business modeling and evaluating financials. Mixed areas of law and business management will be examined, including entity formation, capital formation, and tax planning.
After receiving intensive training in the first three weeks, students begin working with entrepreneur clients in week four and continue through the remainder of the semester. Students work in teams of 2 or 3 to assist two clients over the last 10 weeks of the term with a variety of legal needs. Students are also expected to participate individually in six 1-hour appointments with entrepreneur clients who sign up for free office hours through NBCLC’s website. Students research and provide legal advice under Instructor supervision.
The course satisfies the race and law curricular requirement with a regular focus on the experiences of entrepreneurs of color, which represent 80% of NBCLC clients. Gaps in access to capital are prevalent, with minority business loan applicants still denied credit at twice the rate of white applicants who have the same credit scores and collateral. Students come to understand that the credit access gap is even more pronounced with investment capital, where annually less than 2% of venture capital goes to businesses owned by women or entrepreneurs of color. Strategies for helping close the racial wealth and opportunity gap are included throughout the term. Instead of relying on lecture, the uneven playing field is primarily described and experienced in actual client interactions in office hours, and in the course reading materials and visits from class speakers, including minority entrepreneurs and the attorneys that assist them.
Students wanting to enroll must submit an application, including a resume and short personal statement describing what they are looking to gain from the clinical experience. Upon acceptance, all Clinic students must sign up for the two credit Seminar as the classroom component, and then also four credits for the clinical work conducted with entrepreneur clients over the term. Students can apply through the Berkeley Law Clinic Programs: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/forms/clinics/clinical_application.php
Exam Notes: (None) Class requires a series of papers, assignments, or presentations throughout the semester
Attendance at the first class is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present on the first day of class (without prior permission of the instructor) will be dropped. The instructor will continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to be dropped.
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Requirements Satisfaction:
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Exam Notes: (None) Class requires a series of papers, assignments, or presentations throughout the semester
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Course Category: Clinics
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Business Law
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Books:
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