Legal News

Want to Become an Entrepreneur? Get a Degree in it, at Law School!

By Ashby Jones

No goofy lead-in or anecdote about my law-school professors here. Let’s get to the heart of it. The National Law Journal reports Friday that:

Duke Law School announced on Thursday that it will launch a new Law and Entrepreneurship LLM program next academic year, while the University of Colorado School of Law is awaiting approval of a Entrepreneurial Law LLM it hopes to debut in the fall.

Now, LBers, before you get all crazy on us and start posting comments about what a boondoggle this is; why law schools, given that college grads are flocking to them in droves as an antidote to their job-seeking miseries, need to take in more money; etc., etc., consider the following:

James Cox, the faculty director of Duke’s new LLM program, says the program makes sense, as students and lawyers are taking a broader view of their career prospects. “You’re increasingly finding more law schools graduates who want to go out into the business world rather than go sit behind a desk at a law firm,” he said.

Colorado law professor J. Brad Bernthal, who’s overseeing that school’s entrepreneurial law program, justifies the program partly by emphasizing that counseling start-up companies requires a broad range of skills and a wide range. “Start-up clients need everything under the sun,” Bernthal said. “You need to understand the key drivers of the business and help them prioritize their needs.”

At least at Duke, the kids will get out of the classroom.

Duke students will complete an externship with an emerging company in North Carolina’s Research Triangle - where a number of high-tech companies are located - or will be placed with a law firm that advises entrepreneurs.

LBers, still not convinced? What about the recent Malcolm Gladwell article in the New Yorker, which attempted to debunk the myth that the world’s successful money-makers aren’t so much risk-takers as they are cautious and shrewd, more like good litigators than reckless riverboat gamblers?

Still not convinced? Okay, have at it.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 22, 2010 (boomark / email).