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Posted: February 13, 2008
New Business Practice Legal Practicum takes creative approach to hands-on learning
Once upon a time in Shields Falls, Midstate, there lived a 37-year-old widow with three children who dreamed of opening an ecologically friendly sporting goods store. She worked with student “lawyers” from William Mitchell College of Law to purchase a building, hire employees, start selling products, expand the business, sell it 10 years later, and live happily ever after.
This fictitious scenario is a real teaching tool used in William Mitchell College of Law’s new Business Practice Legal Practicum, offered as a pilot course for spring semester 2008.
The Business Practice Legal Practicum, modeled after Mitchell’s innovative and highly successful General Practice Legal Practicum, which Mitchell pioneered 25 years ago, will train students to represent clients in business matters through a hands-on approach. William Mitchell Professor John Sonsteng and adjunct faculty member Karen Lundquist, ’05 are co-directors. Sonsteng and Linda Thorstad, Mitchell’s faculty publication specialist, created the course and all of its detailed legal scenarios, with help from Lundquist and advice from adjunct faculty.
“This is a more practical approach for students to get a clearer picture of what it is really like to practice law,” says David Dean, a shareholder at Briggs & Morgan, who is instructing students on business financing methods in Mitchell’s Business Practicum. “Professional schools are very good generally at teaching theory and fundamental principles. However, when the student graduates, he or she usually encounters a high learning curve of what it takes to practice law on a daily basis. Practical experience helps lessen that learning curve.”
Mitchell’s business practicum model pairs student “attorneys” to represent a client’s business needs. Student attorneys receive feedback on written work and their method of presentation from a roster of 30 leading local lawyers and judges serving as adjunct faculty members.
Faegre & Benson partner Walter Duffy Jr. ’70, who teaches the Art of Negotiation in the practicum, praises its learn-by-doing method. “Would you rather watch the race from the grandstand or drive the race car?” he says.
The three-course, two-semester practicum series takes a fictitious business owner through company start-up, growth, and disposition. Student “lawyers” write representation agreements; negotiate purchase agreements, contracts, and business plans; draft employee plans; develop finance and tax plans; and handle rezoning issues, intellectual property and product liability matters. Students interview the client, negotiate with the client and others, investigate facts, draft documents, and prepare research memos and briefs. They also attend seminars on business-related issues.
“The course will help students understand that lawyers wear many hats—in addition to serving the client’s legal needs, lawyers must market to obtain clients, engage in client relationship-building activities to retain clients, and perform administrative tasks related to building and running their practice,” says Megan Anderson, principal at Gray Plant Mooty, teaching employee plans and policies in the business practicum.
Past General Practicum course evaluations reveal that Mitchell’s hands-on method of teaching does make a difference for students in the job market, Sonsteng says. “This is real work experience for students that they can carry with them into their careers,” he says. “Our students learn more than just how to take a blue book exam. They learn how to set up a business from start to finish.”