What are the Transactional Law Clinics?
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 do I 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.
Sample Schedule
Please note this is just a mock schedule and client(s) for illustrative purposes. TLC students typically break up their 16 to 20 clinical hours across 3 to 5 days, in a variety of different ways.
| Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
| 8:30 – 9:15 am: Check into TLC office and go through emails and any missed phone calls. 9:15 – 10:00 am: Draft agenda for weekly supervisory meeting/case check- in with clinical supervisor. 10:00 – 10:30 am: Attend weekly supervisory meeting with clinical supervisor. 10:30 am – 12:30 pm: Draft client contract on behalf of MA nonprofit client that provides free remote health care services to Ukrainians. | 12:30 – 1:30 pm: Break for lunch. 1:30 – 3:30 pm: Switch over to working on my case assisting a tech start-up with their first financing round. Update and send an investor questionnaire for client to use with potential investors. 3:30 – 4:30 pm: Finish preparing for client meeting with two co-founders looking to start a small community art space/gallery in Roxbury. Incorporate the feedback I received from my clinical supervisor into my agenda for the client meeting. | 4:30 – 5:30 pm: Meet with my community art space/gallery client to discuss their options in starting the business. Based on my research, recommend a MA Limited Liability Company and go over the steps we would take to form it for them. |
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.
Erin Cho
Clinical Instructor
Nicholas Dashman
Clinical Instructor
Nick joined the Transactional Law Clinics as a Clinical Instructor in the Winter of 2025. Prior to coming to Harvard, Nick managed the business and legal affairs of three international television production companies based in London where he negotiated deals and drafted agreements for all aspects of television production and distribution. He was previously a partner at Hansen Jacobson, et. al., a boutique entertainment talent law firm based in Beverly Hills, where he negotiated deals and drafted agreements for production companies, rightsholders, writers, directors, producers, performers, and other talent in the film and television industries. Nick previously practiced media distribution law as an associate at Covington & Burling LLP and Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Los Angeles where he specialized in television and new media distribution agreements for programming networks and sports leagues. He also previously practiced corporate transactional law in Silicon Valley as an associate for Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, specializing in private and public securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate representation for technology companies. Nick received his B.A. from Duke University and J.D. from Stanford Law School.
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