To learn more about the Clinical Curriculum and Registration, please visit our Clinical Registration Center. You can also find more information on How to Register for Clinics and How Clinical Credits Work.

For more information about this clinic, please visit the Clinic Website, Clinic Q&A and OCP Blog Highlights.

Enrollment in this clinic will fulfill the HLS JD pro bono requirement.

Required Class Component: Transactional Law Clinical Workshop (2 spring classroom credits). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in this clinic will automatically enroll you in the required course.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.

By Permission: No.

Add/Drop Deadline: August 23, 2024.

LLM Students: LLM students may enroll in this clinic through Helios.

Placement Site: HLS.

The Transactional Law Clinics (TLC) provide students the opportunity to work directly with clients on cases spanning the transactional spectrum. Students enrolled in TLC will engage in actual legal practice with real clients involved in transactional matters. Students practice under the supervision and mentoring of an experienced attorney in one or more of the three TLC practice areas: 1) Business and Nonprofit; 2) Entertainment; or 3) the Community Enterprise Project (“CEP”). TLC clients include entrepreneurs, small businesses, social enterprises, non-profit organizations, community groups, and individuals and companies in the entertainment industry and creative fields. Students will have direct hands-on responsibility for handling their cases and will gain experience in various aspects of transactional practice. TLC students typically experience professional growth in areas such as strategic judgment, transactional thinking ability, communication skills, client interviewing, counseling, and management, document drafting and review, ethical awareness, and practice-oriented research and writing.

After enrolling in TLC, students will be asked to preference which of the Clinic’s three practice areas they would like to work in: Business and Nonprofit, Entertainment, or CEP. Depending on client needs, students that preference the Business and Nonprofit concentration typically have cases in business (C Corp, S Corp, LLC, etc.) and non-profit formations; applications for tax exemption; corporate governance advising; securities offerings/capital raises/commercial financing; contract drafting, review and negotiation (including technology contracts, such as SaaS, terms of use, end user agreements, etc.); commercial leasing; and intellectual property matters (such as trademark, copyright registration, and software licensing). Students that preference the Entertainment concentration will have cases addressing intellectual property matters (such as trademark, copyright registration, and music licensing); drafting and reviewing agreements for creatives (such as band agreements and record deals); and cases similar to the above but specifically for clients in the creative fields. Finally, students that preference CEP, which focuses on facilitating community economic development, typically engage in direct client representation (with cases similar to those in the Business and Nonprofit concentration) and in community economic development (through popular education workshops and partnerships with community organizations aimed at identifying and addressing organizational and community legal needs).

Depending on instructor availability, student preference, and client needs, there may be the opportunity for students to work across multiple concentrations.

You can read firsthand accounts regarding student experiences in TLC by visiting: https://clinics.law.harvard.edu/tlc/an-experience-that-stands-out-from-the-rest/, https://clinics.law.harvard.edu/tlc/helping-minority-owned-businesses/, and https://clinics.law.harvard.edu/tlc/hands-on-experiential-work-starts-on-day-1-in-the-transactional-law-clinics/.

Enrollment is through clinical registration. Please refer to the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs website (https://hls.harvard.edu/clinics) for clinical registration dates, early add/drop deadlines, and other information about the clinical.

Successful completion of appropriate written work in this offering satisfies the professional writing requirement for matriculants to the J.D. program from 2023 onward.