The Transactional Law Clinics consist of the Business and Non-Profit Clinic, the Real Estate Clinic, the Entertainment Law Clinic, and the Community Enterprise Project. These clinics provide legal assistance to small businesses, entrepreneurs and community organizations for business formation, contract review and negotiation, commercial financing, leasing, community economic development, real estate purchase and sales, business acquisitions, intellectual property, nonprofit formation, permitting, licensing, and other transactional legal services.
In every respect, the Transactional Law Clinics operates as a professional law office in the service of clients; this clinic offers the opportunity to gain experience on topics such as client interviewing and intake; case management; contract drafting; negotiation skills; ethics; and legal analysis.
Focus Areas
Business Law
TLC’s Business practice includes the wide range of legal matters facing entrepreneurs and small businesses. We regularly assist clients with choosing the right legal entity for them, forming businesses (such as LLCs, corporations, cooperatives, etc.), investments and financing, sales and purchases, contracts, commercial lease reviews and negotiations, regulatory compliance and governance, and worker classification and employment matters. We also counsel businesses on technology transactional matters ranging from website and app terms of use, software licensing and development (including impact of open-source components), software as a service (SaaS) arrangements and other commercial contracts related to technology providers.
Nonprofit Law
TLC regularly assists both existing nonprofit organizations and those considering whether a nonprofit is right for them. We provide a range of services to nonprofit clients, including formation and tax-exemption applications; advising on entity selection, such as whether to choose a for-profit or non-profit vehicle and the various tax-exempt classifications that may best fit a client’s needs; regulatory and other compliance requirements; corporate governance; employment and other personnel matters; non-profit mergers or dissolutions; intellectual property matters, including trademark and copyright registration; contract drafting and negotiation (including website terms of use); and many more.
Entertainment Law
Our Entertainment practice, offered through TLC and our Recording Artists Project, provides legal assistance to musicians, performers, artists, independent record labels, production companies, songwriters, film companies, artist managers and other arts and entertainment entrepreneurs and firms.
Intellectual Property Law
Our Intellectual Property expertise is central to our Business, Nonprofit and Entertainment practices. We counsel on copyright, trademark and trade secrets matters, assisting with state and federal registrations, NDAs and confidentiality agreements, licensing matters, transfer agreements and structuring instruments for creative collaborations.
Contract Law
We regularly represent our business, nonprofit, and entertainment clients in contract drafting, review, and negotiation matters. We have expertise in a variety of different contract types, including service contracts, commercial leases, shareholder agreements, website and app terms of use, licensing, and software as a service.
Community Enterprise Project
Through our Community Enterprise Project, we work with community organizations to identify organizational and community legal needs, and develop comprehensive strategies to address those needs. To this end, CEP often facilitates community workshops on legal issues relevant to small businesses, non-profit organizations, and the populations they serve.
How to Register
The clinic is offered in the Fall and Spring semesters. You can learn about the required clinical course component, clinical credits and the clinical registration process by reading the course catalog description and exploring the links in this section.
Meet the Instructors
Noel Roycroft
Deputy Director; Clinical Instructor
Noel Roycroft joined the Transactional Law Clinics of Harvard Law School as a Clinical Instructor in 2018. Before coming to Harvard, Noel was an associate in the corporate department of Ropes & Gray, LLP and a member of the firm’s asset management group where she focused her practice on representing investment products, their boards, and managers in transactional, regulatory, and compliance matters. Noel was also previously a fellow and associate counsel with the national office of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Prior to gaining her law degree, Noel worked in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where she was Chief of Staff to a Committee Chair and State Representative. Noel received her B.A. from Bowdoin College, graduate certificate in non-profit management from Northeastern University, and J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law.
Patricia Alejandro
Clinical Instructor
Patricia Alejandro joined the Transactional Law Clinics as a Clinical Instructor in 2022. Prior to joining TLC, Patricia worked as a staff attorney at TakeRoot Justice in New York City, where she supported community-based organizations and coalitions by providing transactional legal services to worker cooperatives, not-for-profits and small businesses, as well as providing support with policy development and community education efforts. Patricia was previously a transactional associate at White & Case LLP in New York City, where she assisted in the management of international project and asset finance deals, private and public offerings, and other corporate transactions. She has also taught negotiation and leadership at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. While at Harvard, Patricia was a teaching assistant in TLC’s Community Enterprise Project and in the Winter Negotiation Workshop. Patricia’s experience also includes alternative dispute resolution, international human rights, transitional justice and democracy development. Patricia received her B.A. from Yale University, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Erin Cho
Clinical Instructor
Carmen Halford
Clinical Instructor
Carmen Halford joined the Transactional Law Clinics of Harvard Law School as a Clinical Instructor in 2021. Before coming to Harvard, Carmen worked as a transactional associate at the New York firm Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen, P.C. where she concentrated her practice on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings and general corporate matters. She regularly counseled individuals as well as U.S. and foreign enterprises across a wide breadth of industries, cultivating extensive experience in primary and secondary equity sales of private companies, secured and unsecured financings and other complex commercial transactions, and also regularly acted as outside general counsel to many of her clients. Prior to that position, Carmen was a global transactions associate at the New York office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Carmen obtained her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. in International Studies with a minor in Chinese Studies from the University of South Carolina. Prior to her legal studies, Carmen worked in the marketing department of CBS Interactive (China) in Beijing.
Natasha Walwyn Robinson
Clinical Instructor
Natasha joined the Transactional Law Clinics as a Clinical Instructor in the Fall of 2025. Before coming to Harvard, Natasha worked as senior product legal counsel at Meta. Prior to Meta, Natasha led the marketing and trademarks legal team at Splunk. She began her legal career at American Public Television where she led the contracts department. Before law school, she served as an Americorps/Massachusetts Promise fellow with the Committee for Public Counsel Services Youth Advocacy Division. Natasha received her B.A. from the University of Virginia, J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, Executive Education from Harvard Law School, and Legal Education Certificate from Eugene Dupuch Law School (Bahamas).
Staff Members
| Alexander Horn | Program Administrator | ahorn@law.harvard.edu |
In the News
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Harmony and Justice
[Originally posted by the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs, Clinical Spotlight] One musician-turned-law student’s journey to advocate for artists When Krysta Hyppolite ‘25 first picked up a cello, […]
January 3, 2025
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From Incarceration to Entrepreneurship
[Originally published by Harvard Law Today, September 19, 2024] A Boston-area collaboration supported by Harvard’s Transactional Law Clinics is bringing business skills to returning citizens Sep 19, 2024 By Olivia […]
September 19, 2024
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‘Do not be afraid to pick up the phone’
[Originally posted by the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs, “Keeping Tabs”] Aug 19, 2024 By Olivia Klein Keeping Tabs is a Q&A series that follows alumni on their careers […]
August 20, 2024
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Serving Boston entrepreneurs in the Transactional Law Clinics
[Originally posted on December 19, 2023, on the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Program blog] Dec 19, 2023 By Reema Doleh ’25 Growing up in south Brooklyn, the entrepreneurial […]
January 30, 2024