Jay A. Mitchell

- Professor of Law, Emeritus
- Room 245, Crown Quadrangle
Expertise
- Business & Corporate Law
- Clinical Education
- Commercial Law
- Contracts
- Legal Profession
- Nonprofit Organizations
Biography
Jay A. Mitchell (BA ’80) was the founding director of the law school’s Organizations and Transactions Clinic. He led the clinic from its launch in the 2007 – 2008 academic year until September 2023. Under his leadership, the clinic represented a wide range of nonprofit organizations, including national and state leaders in hunger relief, the performing arts, agriculture, science education, museums, and other fields. The clinic also created a resource website, targeted to lawyers engaging in pro bono work, that contains approximately 270 forms and model legal documents for nonprofits.
Professor Mitchell’s writing focuses on intersections of law and design, including the value of bringing design sensibilities and methods to both transactional work and transactional teaching. His book Picturing Corporate Practice, an introduction to corporate work written in collaboration with a graphic designer, encourages the use of visual approaches in carrying out a variety of activities across legal practice. Professor Mitchell’s current project centers on developing a new course designed to introduce first and second year students to transactional practice, and he continues to represent several longstanding nonprofit clients.
Before joining the law school in 2007, Professor Mitchell served for nearly 15 years as chief corporate counsel and a member of the legal and finance senior management teams at Levi Strauss & Co., where he was responsible for stockholder, finance, governance, disclosure, and commercial transaction matters. Earlier in his career, Mitchell was a partner at Heller Ehrman in San Francisco, an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., and law clerk to Judge John Lewis Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Education
- BA (Political Science) Stanford University (1980)
- JD University of Virginia School of Law (1983)
Courses
Organizations and Transactions Clinic
Students work on structural, programmatic, contractual, affiliation, and governance matters for corporate entities. Students typically represent multiple clients during the term, interact with client CEOs, CFOs, board members, and general counsels, and work in teams with other students and the instructors. Students receive detailed comments about the design, content, and execution of work-products and client communications, and about their performance in client meetings and calls. Students regularly assess their own work throughout the quarter and prepare a self-evaluation at the end of the term.
View Organizations and Transactions Clinic
Nonprofit Forms and Sample Documents
The Organizations and Transactions Clinic maintains a website containing roughly 200 form and precedent legal documents for nonprofit organizations. The materials relate to corporate governance; programmatic and earned income activities; fiscal sponsorship and other relationships unique to nonprofits; everyday contracting; and other areas. They include governance documents, contracts, practical management tools, and examples of advice communications. The site also contains a brief discussion about our take on legal document design.
The site is a resource targeted to lawyers and law clinics who work with nonprofits, whether on a pro bono or for-pay basis; lawyers who otherwise are looking for precedents; legal educators; and individuals who are interested in legal document design.
visit site for documents