Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Overview

As the modern economy is increasingly driven by technological advancements and technology-based companies, lawyers to a greater extent are being called upon to address complex issues with legal, business, technology, and regulatory implications. At the same time, legal practice is changing in profound ways as new technologies — including ediscovery, artificial and machine intelligence, robotics, and cloud platforms — automate processes and provide more efficient mechanisms to manage vast data sets and to predict potential results. Technological advancements within the practice of law present a means to temper legal costs, to make legal practice more efficient and accurate, to increase the accessibility of legal services, to bring about social justice reforms, and to change the way the general public interacts with the legal system. To successfully navigate a rapidly evolving practice environment, lawyers must be skillful and strategic users and consumers of technology.

Through coursework in innovation regulation and policy, legal practice technology, and entrepreneurship, the Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship concentration will expose students to the issues that drive the innovation process and to the role of technology in the modern economy.

Concentration Checklist (pdf)

Program Director: Daniel W. Linna Jr.

Concentration Requirements

To complete the requirements for this concentration, students must:

  1. Complete Business Associations
  2. Complete Administrative Law
  3. Earn an additional 20 credits from among #4 and #5 and the elective courses listed below
  4. Satisfy a research and writing requirement through completion of a) an approved Senior Research Project on a topic related to legal technology and/or legal innovation; b) completion of a seminar or course approved as part of this concentration (or approved with permission by the concentration director) with the Research Writing attribute.
  5. Complete a minimum 2 or 3-credit experiential capstone course chosen from among the Innovation Lab, the University's NUvention Medical Innovation I&II courses (offered through the law school), the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center, or through a technology-oriented externship approved by the concentration director and the Law School’s Director of Externships.

Innovation Regulation and Policy Track

These courses expose students to current regulatory policies and the manner in which existing and potential regulatory frameworks can interact with and fuel innovation.

  • Banking Law and Regulation
  • Business, Government, and Public Policy
  • Bioethics and the Law
  • Data Breach Notification
  • Food and Drug Law
  • Health Care Law and Policy
  • Environmental Law
  • Environmental Law Seminar
  • Privacy Law
  • Telecommunication and Internet Policy
  • Structuring Transactions:  Music Industry 

Legal Practice Technology Track

These courses familiarize students with emerging and potential uses of technology within legal practice, including traditional legal service providers, consumers and clients of legal services, and legal technology startups. Through them, students gain in-depth exposure to developments, risks, and opportunities associated with technologies such as cloud storage, robotics, e-discovery software, machine learning, and other forms of artificial intelligence.

  • Legal Innovation
  • Legal Technology
  • In-House Counsel: Modern Corporations (metrics)
  • Robotics in Society (McCormick)

Entrepreneurship Track

These courses familiarize students with the key aspects of new venture creation and the innovation process along with opportunities to provide legal representation to entrepreneurs through the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center. Several of these courses also intend to inculcate an entrepreneurial mindset among students, an increasingly applicable and important proficiency for graduates regardless of their future positions and careers.

  • Intellectual Property
  • Copyright Law
  • Patent Law
  • Trademarks and Unfair Competition
  • Structuring Transactions: Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Medical Innovation 1 & II (also referred to below as NUvention Medical)*
  • Clinic: Entrepreneurship Law Center*
  • Private Equity Transactions
  • NUvention: Analytics, Arts, Energy, Impact, Medical, Nano, Therapeutics, or Web & Media*
  • Tax Aspects of Private Equity Transactions
  • Structuring Transactions: Patent Prosecution
  • Structuring Transactions: Venture Capital
  • Entrepreneurship Law
  • Entrepreneurship Team Project
  • Medical Device Commercialization (Kellogg)

* Denotes courses that fulfill the Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Concentration’s 3-credit experiential capstone requirement.

Note: Students who wish to take classes listed in schools other than the Law School must receive permission of the Registrar.