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Information for Applicants

Legal Issues Regularly Handled by the Clinic
Client Application and On-Board Process
Clinic Selection Criteria
Application
Costs and Fees

Legal Issues Regularly Handled by the Clinic

The ELC provides various types of assistance, including:

Corporate Work

• Helping clients choose an effective entity structure
• Forming companies
  • LLCs, C-Corps, S-Corps, B-Corps
• Assisting clients in issuance of founders’ equity and creation of founders’ agreements
• Advising clients on how to comply with ongoing corporate legal requirements
• Advising on the fundraising process and on corporate finance issues

Commercial Work

• Drafting contracts and agreements relating to a client's business (or non-profit entity)
• Employee & Independent Contractor agreements
• Vendors agreements
• Customer contracts
• Website terms and conditions of use and privacy policies
• Confidentiality agreements
• Non-Disclosure agreements
• Licensing agreements

Intellectual Property

• Advising clients on how to protect their intellectual property
• Working with the US Patent & Trademark Office

There are a few areas of practice that the Clinic does not cover, mainly: litigation (or situations where litigation appears likely); pure tax advice; and immigration law.

Client Application and On-Board Process

Applications to the ELC should be submitted in late-July through mid-August. The majority of the Clinic’s clients are on-boarded and engaged at the beginning of the school year in late-August and early September.  Although applications are accepted throughout the year, there is often a large wait list by late August, and applicants are only accepted from the wait list if Clinic resources are available. 

• Submission of an application does NOT create an attorney/client relationship between the applicant and the ELC. To apply for ELC assistance:
• Carefully read all the information on this page.
• Read the Acceptance Process information below.
• Complete the

Acceptance Process:  The three steps listed below must be completed before the ELC can accept and commence work for an applicant. The following client selection process is typically completed in late August.  All client selection decisions are subject to ELC staffing availability and are solely within the ELC’s discretion.

• The ELC will review the application and determine if the request is appropriate for ELC assistance.
• If the assistance requested appears appropriate, an ELC student is assigned to your file. The assigned student will contact you to set up an initial interview. Initial interviews typically occur in the first two weeks of the school year in early September.
• Following the initial interview, the ELC will make a final determination as to whether to accept you as a client.

If the application is accepted, the client must sign an engagement letter prior to any ELC assistance.  Once the engagement letter is signed, the student team will begin substantive legal work for the client.

Clinic Selection Criteria

1. The ELC selects applicants on the basis of all four of the following criteria:
2. The applicant would otherwise be unlikely to obtain qualified legal advice;
3. The applicant has not received a significant round of outside funding or financing from investors;
4. The applicant’s place of business is within 60 miles of ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ County (clients from other Colorado areas may be accepted as ELC resources and adequate means of communication permit); and
5. The work requested by the applicant is appropriate for students and presents an interesting educational opportunity.

Application

If you want to apply to the ELC, please read all of the information on this webpage.  Then complete the .

Costs and Fees

The ELC does not charge fees for its services. However, clients must pay any out of pocket costs associated with ELC work (e.g., state filing fees for entity formation).

Information for Students

Benefits to Students
Ideal Student Candidates
Enrolling in ELC
USPTO Law School Certification Program

Benefits to Students

The ELC provides students the opportunity to gain practical experience in transactional law by handling real legal issues with real clients.  Students learn to manage client relationships, develop workflow plans, and deliver valuable work product for clients, all while benefiting from professional guidance and insight of experienced supervising attorneys.  The year long Clinic gives students some of the most hands-on experiences available in law school, and prepares students for the demands of actual law practice.  Additionally, students develop lasting relationships with both the legal and business community, helping to grow the students professional network.  Additional information can be found on the ELC main page and reading the Scope and Mission sections.

While the ELC is a unique opportunity for law students, other offerings exist for students to learn and engage in entrepreneurship.  Such offerings include:

• CU Law’s Tech Law Accelerator Program
• Transactional Moot Court
• Deming Center Venture Fund
• Venture Capital Course
• Law School Entrepreneurial Certificate
• JD/MBA Program

Identifying Ideal Student Candidates

As a prerequisite to enrolling in the Clinic, a student must take three courses within the areas of corporate law, agency, tax, securities, intellectual property, transactional drafting, or transactional law.  For guidance on relevancy of coursework, see courses required for the Entrepreneurial Law Certificate.  ELC students should plan on taking additional relevant coursework while enrolled in the Clinic.

ELC applicants should have demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship, which may be demonstrated through the following:

• Pursuit of the Entrepreneurial Law Certificate, enrollment in the joint JD/MBA degree program, or activity in campus entrepreneurship through the Silicon Flatirons Center, the New Venture Challenge, the Deming Center, Startup Colorado or other entrepreneurship-oriented organizations; and/or
• Relevant personal and professional experience such as internships, externships, clerkships, or experience as part of start-up or emerging business.

Enrolling in the ELC

The ELC is a graded two-semester course for which students receive three credit hours for each of the Fall semester and the Spring semester (or six credit hours for the academic year).  The Clinic is limited to 18 students.  Sixteen of the students are third year students, and two of the students are second year students who focus on the areas of intellectual property and patent prosecution.   The second year students are encouraged to enroll in the Clinic during their third year in order to provide continuity with respect to the Clinic’s patent prosecution matters.

The ELC serves as a capstone transactional experience for law students.  Applications to the ELC are collected each Spring in the weeks preceding registration for enrollment. The Registrar sends notice in March to rising third year students with instructions for application. Qualified applicants are identified through an application process.  Selection of qualified applicants is completed via the bid-point system with ties being determined by a lottery system. Qualified applicants who do not directly gain entry into the ELC are placed on a waitlist. 

Additional student and enrollment information is available by contacting Brad.Bernthal@Colorado.edu

USPTO Law School Certification Program

The Patent Group is a sub-section within the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic that allows law students interested in patent law to receive substantive experience in patent prosecution. Students in the Patent Group are temporarily authorized to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under the USPTO’s Law School Clinic Certification program [link]. Under the supervision of registered patent attorneys, students guide and advise startup businesses and independent inventors through issues concerning patent strategy, and students draft and prosecute patent applications and related correspondence for those clients. Students also learn the strategy and practical knowledge necessary to create high-quality patents, including prior art searching, advanced drafting techniques, and responding to USPTO correspondence.

Unique to the Patent Group, second-year students are eligible for admittance to the Clinic (the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic is typically open only to third-year students). Admitted second-year students are encouraged to re-enroll during their third year for the opportunity to mentor incoming second-year students and to help maintain continuity for clients and pending patent applications. Students involved in the Patent Group receive temporary registration numbers to represent clients directly before the USPTO and therefore must have a science or technical background that qualifies them to sit for the USPTO registration exam.

The Patent Group is part of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, and students will fully participate in, and will get the benefit of weekly class sessions and other activities of the Clinic.  In each of the Fall and Spring semesters, students in the Patent Group will receive three credit hours for completing requirements of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic plus an additional two credit hours for completing requirements of the Patent Group.

Applications for positions in the Patent Group are collected each Spring preceding enrollment registration. Students are selected by the Director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, supervising attorneys of the Patent Group, and current students of the Patent Group, and the selection process is fully separate from the process that governs other positions in the Clinic.

the Program
Application
Acceptance Process

the Program

The Law School Clinic Certification Pilot program of the USPTO allows law students enrolled in a participating law school clinic to practice Intellectual Property Law before the USPTO under the strict guidance of a law school faculty clinic supervisor. The program currently consists of students practicing patent law before the USPTO. The program is administered by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline. The Director of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline grants the law students limited recognition to practice before the Office.

Students gain experience drafting and filing patent applications for clients of the ELC. Further, as they are authorized to practice before the USPTO, they gain experience answering Office Actions and communicating with patent examiners for the applications they have filed.

The ELC does not charge a fee for its services, but if there are any government fees required for a service, such as a patent application filing fee to the USPTO, the client is responsible for those government fees. While the ELC will assist clients on a variety of intellectual property matters, it is focused on patent prosecution and will not handle litigation or contested matters.

Application

The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic requests all prospective clients seeking patent related work fill out the following electronic application, save it and submit it by email to the ELC Student Manager.

Submission of an application does NOT create an attorney/client relationship between the applicant and the ELC.

Acceptance Process

The three steps listed below must be completed before the ELC can accept and commence work for an applicant.  All client selection decisions are subject to ELC staffing availability and are solely within the ELC’s discretion.

• The ELC will review the application and determine if the request is appropriate for ELC assistance.
• If the assistance requested appears appropriate, an ELC student is assigned to your file. The assigned student will contact you to set up an initial interview.
• Following the initial interview, the ELC will make a final determination as to whether to accept you as a client.

If the application is accepted, the client must sign an engagement letter prior to any ELC assistance.  Unless otherwise agreed and specified, the scope of work will be limited only to patent related matters. Once the engagement letter is signed, the student team will begin substantive legal work for the client.

If you are interested in giving back to the ELC please contact Brad Bernthal.  Opportunities to give back directly through the CU Law School include the following:

 â€“ Established to provide scholarships to recipients at the Colorado Law School who embody the spirit of Sarah Rector, an alumna of the ELC.  Special consideration may be given to students who participate in CU Law Schools’ entrepreneurship program.

 â€“ Established to provide scholarship support to CU Law School students who embody the spirit of Professor Brad Bernthal, the instructor of the ELC.

The ELC is supported by a network of Clinical Advisors. The Clinic Advisors below are some of the Front Range's leading practicing attorneys. These individuals generously donate their time to help advise Student Attorneys on issues faced by the ELC and, through their involvement, they are training the next generation of transactional attorneys. They provide critical support which helps the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic promote innovation by helping the area's entrepreneurial ventures.