For over 20 years, the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center at Northwestern has fostered an intersection between law and business.

DPELC is housed within the Pritzker School of Law and includes classes, clinical experiences and year-round events. The idea is to provide law students with practical skills while they’re still in school, Director Esther Barron said.

“Our mission is providing law students with practical transactional skills while they’re still in school by representing entrepreneurs,” Barron said. “We also provide resources to entrepreneurs, both within the NU community and the Chicagoland community.”

DPELC’s course offerings include entrepreneurship law, venture capital and contract drafting. It also has its own clinic, where DPELC represents real entrepreneurs and companies while allowing students to gain hands-on practice in an academic environment, Barron said.

Law students take DPELC classes as electives, Assistant Director Stephen Reed said. New to the slate this year is a DPELC class in San Francisco.

“It’s a transactional law negotiation class that we’re going to host out in San Francisco as part of NU’s West Coast initiative for an intensive week in March,” Pritzker Prof. Darren Green said. “So that’s a new offering we’re putting together as we speak.”

Reed emphasized that NU is a “pioneer” in many of its course offerings because it develops curriculum in-house.

As for events at DPELC, Program Administrator Allie Reid said this year’s March 7 symposium will focus on animal welfare and public health. 

DPELC events are open not only to all law students, but the entire NU community, Reid said. 

“We have our speaker series, which is events where we bring in folks in that space to talk to our students throughout the year,” Reid said. “And this will be our second year hosting a symposium that’s focused in some way on animal welfare.”

DPELC also looks outward at the rest of NU community and focuses on its relationships, Green said. Green said that within the community at large, DPELC hosts workshops about entity selection, intellectual property protection and other aspects of starting a business. On campus, DPELC is involved with programming at The Garage and the VentureCat business plan competition.

“In addition to providing educational opportunities within the law school, the DPELC serves as a resource for Northwestern students who aren’t law students, whether they’re starting companies or what have you,” Green said.

DPELC was founded by Pritzker professor emeritus Thomas Morsch, who created what was then called the Small Business Opportunity Center over 20 years ago.

In the two decades since its founding, the center’s goal remains the same: to expose NU law students to entrepreneurship, Barron said.

“All of the entrepreneurial programs (at NU) work together really collaboratively,” Barron said. “The law school is an integral part of the whole University entrepreneurship ecosystem. It’s something that’s really special about NU.”

Email: [email protected] 

X: @_melodyxu

Related Stories:

— Northwestern professors pioneer multidisciplinary AI research 

— Pritzker School of Law hosts panel on 2024 election and current political climate 

— Northwestern LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic prepares to represent clients in court