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Start-Up Ventures Clinic

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The Start-Up Ventures Clinic (SUVC) offers students an experience that combines the Law School’s commitment to entrepreneurial education with valuable practical training.

The SUVC provides legal advice and assistance to entrepreneurs and to seed- and early-stage ventures that have not yet raised significant amounts of outside capital in a wide variety of legal matters, including company formation, intellectual property protection, commercialization strategies, and operational issues. Student-attorneys work with actual clients from the thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem on Duke's campus, from the greater Research Triangle region, and from across North Carolina, especially in areas that have historically been underrepresented in commercial, pro bono assistance.

Student-attorneys in the clinic have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of new enterprises. Duke’s prime location in one of the nation’s most dynamic centers for entrepreneurship makes it an exciting place to advise start-ups while they’re still in the germination phase, and virtual technologies allow student attorneys to advise start-ups located across our state.

Testimonial

The Start-Up Ventures Clinic has been the best course experience I’ve had at Duke Law School. Working in the clinic, you learn how to communicate directly with clients and help them solve problems they didn’t even know they had. I loved helping young businesses in my community, and the experience has better prepared me to start my career.

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Madalyn Sowar Strahl '21

Clinic Faculty

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Start-Up Ventures Clinic, 441
The Start-Up Ventures Clinic represents entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses and social ventures on a variety of matters related to the start-up process, including formation, founder equity and vesting, shareholder agreements, intellectual property protection and licensing agreements, commercialization strategies, and other issues that new enterprises face in their start-up phases.

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The docket application for the Start-Up Ventures Clinic is now closed. We intend to reopen our applications for the Fall 2024 semester in July. In the meantime, please click here to sign up for our email list. We will email you when our applications reopen. Please also read our FAQ for more information.