Community Enterprise Clinic
The Community Enterprise Clinic helps nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs plan and implement community development projects that improve the quality of life in economically disadvantaged areas.
The clinic gives students the opportunity to develop business law skills and expertise as they help organizations that would otherwise not have access to a lawyer overcome barriers, attract resources, and improve the quality of life in the communities they serve. Student-attorneys serve as outside general counsel to the clinic's clients, taking transactional projects from conception to implementation in areas such as affordable housing, community revitalization, business formation, and public policy.
Building on Duke's renowned curriculum in business and finance law, students put what they have learned in the classroom to work for real clients and deepen their understanding of substantive law, including affordable housing and community development law, corporate law, securities law, real estate law, and administrative law. Students not only structure transactions, but also build the skills required in any business law practice, including problem identification and problem-solving, business planning, client interviewing and counseling, negotiating, drafting, legal analysis and case management.
The clinic offers students invaluable hands-on experience representing nonprofits and social entrepreneurs across Durham and North Carolina.
Already focused on a future business law career, Hannah Berg JD ’25 helped dissolve a nonprofit by filing its final state documents and advised Jubilee Home, a Durham nonprofit supporting people reentering the community after incarceration, on choosing the best business structure for its new social enterprise designed to train residents in job skills. Just before graduation, Berg received the news that the new entity had been approved. "To get actual hands-on legal experience was really rewarding and boosted my confidence pre-graduation in terms of my skill set," Berg said.
Under the guidance of Clinic Director Andrew Foster, students handle a variety of real-world legal matters such as filing incorporation documents, drafting bylaws, establishing boards, and assisting with tax-exempt status applications. They also work on larger transactional projects, like affordable housing development, and collaborate on comprehensive legal assessments to help nonprofits strengthen their operations and sustainability.
Law in Action: The Clinic Experience
Clinical Professor Andrew Foster, director of the Community Enterprise Clinic at Duke Law, talks about the clinic's work, how students get involved, the skills they learn, and his favorite part about leading the clinic.
The clinic helps nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs improve the quality of life in economically disadvantaged areas — while helping students build the skills they need for professional practice.
Clinic Faculty
Andrew Foster
Kathrine Robinson Everett Clinical Professor of Law
Director, Community Enterprise Clinic919-613-7076