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The
clinical component of Northwestern's entrepreneurship and transactional
program is known as the Clients
who are accepted from the SBOC's long waiting list are required to sign a
formal engagement letter and are charged modest fees ranging from $150 to $1,500 per client
depending on the amount of work the SBOC is asked to undertake.
The most common assignments involve the establishment of an appropriate
business entity, searching and registering trade names, confidentiality and
employment contracts, reviewing commercial leases and, in the case of
nonprofit organizations, the preparation and handling of applications for
tax-exempt status. Several clients have reached the venture capital stage of
financing. Student Work Assignments Client
work is done by SBOC student participants under the close supervision of a
faculty member with substantial experience in private law practice. No
litigation or contested proceedings are handled. The program is operated in
the same way as in a corporate law firm: the student participant and a
faculty supervisor meet together with the new client; both ask questions
about the proposed venture or legal problem facing the client; both prepare
notes of the meeting. Following the meeting, the student drafts a letter to
the client summarizing the points discussed at the initial conference and
estimating SBOC fees and official charges. The letter is then reviewed by the
faculty supervisor and is sent to the client over the student's name with a
copy to the supervisor. If the client elects to have the SBOC undertake one
or more of the items outlined in the first letter, the student does all of
the required research and drafting under faculty guidance and supervision.
When the engagement is complete, the student prepares a statement for
services and expenses and a letter transmitting it to the client. Once a week
all student participants and faculty supervisors meet as a group to review
the accomplishments and challenges of the prior week and to discuss matters
of common interest. Three
full-time faculty members, who also have classroom teaching and other
responsibilities, have been able to supervise eighteen SBOC student
participants per semester, each student with five or six clients for whom he or
she has primary responsibility. This means that the SBOC has an active case
load of approximately 65 clients each semester, some of whom are long time
clients that the SBOC has represented for a year or more. SBOC
student participants, who generally remain in the clinic for two semesters,
are graded on the quality of their work and on the amount of responsibility
they assume for meeting clients' needs. Students receive either three or four
credit hours depending on whether the are participating in the clinic for
their first or second semester. |
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