NYU Law Courses and Clinics

 

NYU Law Courses and Clinics

NYU Law is training the next generation of lawyers who will work in and shape the emerging field of law and social entrepreneurship, thereby bridging its widely renowned programs in law and business and in public interest law.

NYU Law is expanding its curricular offerings to incorporate more themes of social entrepreneurship.  Students interested in the field can combine more traditional training in corporate, securities, and tax law with specialized courses, like Law & Business of Social Entrepreneurship, Negotiating Impact Investment Transactions, and Financing Development, and reading groups focused on community development, microfinance, and impact investing, among others. Current relevant courses include:

o Law and Business of Corporate Governance: Taught by Professors Helen Scott and Karen Brenner, this is a special full semester section of Corporate Governance including faculty and students from both the Stern School of Business and the NYU School of Law. The emphasis in this section is on the interdisciplinary legal and business aspects of corporate governance. The objective is to facilitate professional interaction and joint work between students from both schools. The purpose of this course is to examine: the purpose, evolution and history of corporate governance standards; the current structure, makeup, priorities and culture of boards; shareholder/stakeholder engagement- shareholder activism; international corporate governance and corporate social responsibility; governance crises and reputational risk management; and current “hot” topics in corporate governance.

o Law and Business Projects Seminar: Taught by Professors Helen Scott and Gerald Rosenfeld, this seminar challenges the student to demonstrate their combined legal and business skills. The projects are developed, discussed, administered and presented in the Law & Business Projects Seminar, a year-long course co-taught by the Jacobson Leadership Program Faculty Directors.

o Law and Business of Social Enterprise: Taught by Professor Ana Demel, this law and business course introduces students to the legal, regulatory and business aspects of ‘social’ enterprises. Through a mixture of lectures, student presentations, discussions and guest speakers, the course will examine the history and purpose of social entrepreneurship, contrasting it with other agents of social change. Students will learn about both existing and emerging legal structures that regulate social enterprises, consider the types of financing models available to social enterprises, consider the various means currently available to evaluate performance against the social and environmental objectives, and explore the challenges being a social enterprise poses to traditional notions of corporate governance both in the ordinary course of business and in the context of extraordinary events such as change of control situations.

The Center also is supporting the expansion and deepening of NYU Law’s current business clinical offerings that provide students with an opportunity to engage directly in the representation of social entrepreneurs and impact investors:

o International Transactions Clinic (ITC): Launched by Professor Deborah Burand in the fall of 2015, the International Law Transactions Clinic offers students the opportunity to provide legal services to clients that are conducting cross-border transactions in emerging markets. The bulk of the ITC’s clients include social enterprises and impact investors. The clinic includes a fieldwork component that allows students to receive hands-on training from practicing attorneys. Another component of the clinic involves students meeting in a seminar twice a week for two hours. In these seminar meetings, the ITC concentrates on teaching students skills that are critically important to their professional development as they enter into practice areas that involve international transactions.

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o Business Law Transactions Clinic (BLTC): The clinic, co-directed by Professor Stephanie Abramson and Professor Sean Delany, provides students with the opportunity to develop analytical, planning, editorial, and counseling skills in the context of client projects and reality-grounded class work.  Students learn to understand legal documents as business communications and to communicate complex legal concepts, factual matters, and tactical choices in simple, concise, organized, and understandable ways. The clinic includes a weekly two-hour seminar, which focuses on the business lawyer’s multiple roles in assessing, planning, and managing corporate transactions.

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Video Testimonials

Michael Fahner ’17 on why students should take the Business Law Transactions Clinic	Shreyas Kale JD/MBA ’17 on his International Transactions Clinic work
Peter Egziabher ’17 on how he pursued his interests in social enterprise and startup law	Estefania Murray LLM ’17 on why she applied to the International Transactions Clinic
Eliza Chute JD/MBA ’19 highlights social entrepreneurship opportunities at NYU Law