Legal Issues of Start Up Business
Certificate(s): High Tech Law
Course Description:
The course simulates how attorneys advise startup businesses and the various legal issues that a business may encounter during its early stages. Issues covered include entity selection, employment and labor, intellectual property, and financing, including venture financing. Discussions also include relevant regulatory schemes such as securities regulation and the process of IPO. The class is interactive and requires effective oral and written counsel so that the client can make meaningful business decisions. Attendance is mandatory as there are numerous fun and challenging student group exercises including negotiations, client interview and advising. Guest presentations by various experts involved with start-up and growing businesses will be scheduled. Limited enrollment. Instead a final drafting assignment is required. Grades include class participation. Approved IP LLM course
Class Notes:
Experiential Course. Approved IP LLM course.
The best startup General Counsel and legal advisors bring a highly practical approach to addressing the legal issues a company faces. In this course, we do too. We will spend time in two-week modules focusing on the issues and scenarios common to every startup: Nondisclosure Agreements; Collaborating with other companies to innovate; Founding the startup and addressing key legal/stock issues among the founders; raising Venture Capital to finance the startup; employment law issues; and Mergers and Acquisitions (the most common “exit” scenario for startups). During each two-week module, we will use readings and class discussion to learn the key concepts and then apply them to a practical project (e.g. mock negotiation, opening statement in an employment arbitration, etc). We also intersperse two class sessions for practice exam questions and group discussion to help review and reinforce what we covered in prior modules. Because so much of the learning happens in the discussion and in-class projects, attendance is required and class participation is a component of your grade. There is also a final exam.
