Entrepreneurship and Startup Law

This course offers a practical and intensive survey of the critical legal and transactional issues facing emerging small businesses and start-ups. In a highly interactive environment and using a combination of case analysis, class discussion, exercises, student presentations, and real-world insight from guest lecturers, topics include the enforceability of confidentiality, non-competition and restrictive covenants in employment agreements; choice of business form including each form’s legal, financial, and tax considerations; raising capital; mergers, acquisitions and other entrepreneurial deal structures; employment law; and intellectual property law including trade secrets, copyrights, patents, and trademarks. By the end of this course, students will have gained a strong understanding of the many legal issues that come into play before, during, and after the formal creation of a business.