New businesses get a boost from entrepreneurial law clinic

When Thomas Carmona and his brother got ready to launch CityDictionary, an online publication of local user-generated slang, they needed to resolve a few legal issues: getting an operating agreement in place, applying for a trademark and establishing terms of service for the user-generated content on the website.

But instead of having to dig deep to hire a law firm to handle the issues, Carmona sought help from a student at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic who was working in cooperation with private lawyers.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for a young entrepreneur to get his foot in the door for some legal work without major financial resources, but there are certain things that really do require the expertise of somebody who’s studied the law,” Carmona says.

Carmona, who received his master’s in business administration from the Wisconsin Business School in 2009, worked with third-year law student Troy Vosseller, one of 10 students spending their final year of law school devoting 10 hours a week at the clinic.

“It allowed them to do it the right way from square one,” Vosseller says of the work he did for CityDictionary. Vosseller himself knows what it’s like to be an entrepreneur; while an undergraduate at UW–Madison, he started the popular Sconnie Nation clothing line that celebrates life in Wisconsin.

Since the clinic launched last fall, it has served up advice and assistance to more than 40 clients. Another 10 students will work full time for the clinic this summer, then transition to part-time work when school starts again.

The students are supervised by two lawyers — Eric Englund and Anne Smith — and assisted by an advisory board of Madison-area lawyers who are asked to pitch in expertise on particular issues.

Like all the clinics at the law school, which embody the school’s “law in action” mission, work for the clinic is intended to allow students to serve the community while giving them experience they will use when they launch their law careers.

“Having an opportunity for students to work with clients who are trying to start businesses is a really valuable part of the curriculum,” says Walter Dickey, faculty director of the law school’s Remington Center for Research, Education and Service in Criminal Justice.

As important as adding to the students’ experience in law school is the clinic’s goal to provide quality legal services to entrepreneurs, with an eye toward how the new businesses can help build Wisconsin’s economy.

The clinic’s challenge is to find entrepreneurs who want and need legal services, and whose businesses have potential to create wealth and jobs, pay taxes and become assets to the state of Wisconsin, Englund says. That includes student-run startup companies, as well as those by faculty and staff or in the broader community.

“If you put up the sign that says, ‘Free legal service for entrepreneurs,’ the world is your oyster,” he says.

With the law clinic and other efforts to foster entrepreneurism on campus, UW–Madison has come a long way in offering resources to help student entrepreneurs, Vosseller says. He recalls seeking help from professors when he needed legal, accounting or tax help as he launched his business.

“Things like the entrepreneurial law clinic really provide some stepping stones for students to get started and encourages them with help and support,” says Vosseller, who, in addition to the law degree he received in May, has a master’s in business administration in entrepreneurial management from UW’s Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship. He’ll go to work for the clinic this summer, helping supervise the next class of students.

The clinic grew out of a suggestion from Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which funds the clinic along with the law school. Gulbrandsen says he thought it would fit WARF’s goal of developing businesses and technology from research done on campus, as well as foster entrepreneurism in the community.

“One thing you want to have in the community is not only a good pipeline of technology and money to start these companies, but also the professionals out there who can get them in good shape to succeed,” he says. “Growing that kind of expertise in your community is very important.”

The clinic will have space in the Town Center of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery when the facility, under construction on campus between University Avenue and Campus Drive, opens in December.

Working for the clinic was itself an entrepreneurial effort.

“It was a fledgling clinic, and there was not a lot of structure at the beginning,” says Patrick Neuman, who received his law degree in May and will go to work as a business attorney with a Madison firm. “We were all going through the process together and figuring out how to deal with the clients, how the clinic was going to be structured … there was nothing in place.”

Securing the assistance of the major law firms in town was critical to building the clinic, Englund says, adding that one of its goals is to help businesses grow to the point where in the future, they can pay to hire an attorney when they need one.

“The clinic is a great opportunity to get these startup businesses to recognize the value of legal services,” he says.

It’s also been an important part of the students’ learning experience, says Smith. Before presenting work to clients, the students first deliver them to the advisory attorneys on a case, who meet with them to critique it.

“It’s a really valuable experience for the students, because they’re presenting their work product,” Smith says. “Having someone else look at it and offer constructive criticism is something they’re going to have to deal with in the real world.”

Meetings with clients have also helped complete the students’ education. Neuman, who ran his own general contracting business before entering law school, recalls a situation involving a client who presented a flawed business model. He and the attorneys he consulted ultimately advised the business to reconsider its business plan.

“I had to go have this gut-wrenching meeting,” he says. “But that was the best learning experience I’ve had throughout the entire three years of law school.”