Co-requisite courses: 

This opportunity is open to upper-year students who have completed (or will take concurrently) LAW 451 Corporations Law, and LAW 599 Entrepreneurial Law or LAW 599 Advising Startups.

Instructor: Dr. Uchenna Ugwu

Course credit: 3

METHOD OF EVALUATION

The course will be evaluated as Pass/Fail. To obtain a Pass, students are required to  

• i.participate in the bi-weekly case reviews and practical seminars on client interviewing, legal drafting, case and client management, professional communication, and professional ethics and responsibility; 

• ii.complete 50 clinical hours as scheduled in consultation between students and instructor/clinic supervisor;  

• iii.attend team meetings;  

• iv.participate in community outreach and other events designed to educate entrepreneurs about legal issues; and 

• v.complete a self-evaluation and a reflection journal meeting the instructor’s minimum standard (to be communicated at the beginning of the Fall term). 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

LAW 589 Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC) is a 3-credit experiential learning course (evaluated on a credit/no credit basis) that consists of client work, weekly practical seminars, and community engagement. Students in the ELC will provide legal support by drafting legal information memoranda and transactional legal documents on a range of legal issues for early-stage, traditional start-ups and social enterprises, under the supervision of mentoring lawyers. Although the Clinic’s files vary from term to term, they often include matters related to entity formation, employment and hiring, intellectual property, consumer privacy, non-profits and charities regulations and compliance, business regulations, website and platform regulation, and commercial transactions and other matters common to the operations of for-profit, non-profit, and hybrid start-ups. Students in the ELC also design and run community outreach and other events designed to educate entrepreneurs about legal issues.

Students in the ELC work in teams of twos or threes and are, under the guidance of the ELC instructor, responsible for managing their assigned case files, and are expected to balance their work on multiple files, schedule client and supervisor meetings, and maintain healthy relationships with teammates, clients, and supervisors.

The ELC will be offered in both the Fall and Winter terms of the 2026/2027 academic year. Students will be accepted into either the Fall or Winter term.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Enrollment into the ELC is through application and interview only. To complete the application, you will need to submit a resume or CV and a one-page cover letter explaining why you are interested in registering for the ELC and indicating whether you meet the pre-requisites/co-requisites for enrollment in the clinic.

Please apply using the Experiential Learning Application linked below.

The application deadline is April 10, 2026. Students who make the shortlist will be invited for a chat with the ELC team. 

For more information about the ELC, please attend the information session on Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 1PM or visit our website. For questions, contact lawentcl@ualberta.ca.

SPECIAL COMMENTS

Description updated March 2, 2026 by Dr. Allison Fieldberg. Please contact the instructor for any specific questions you may have related to this particular course section.

This course may not be repeated for credit. 

REQUIRED TEXTS (IF ANY)

None