Jay A. Mitchell

- Professor of Law
- Director, Organizations and Transactions Clinic
- Room N144, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Business & Corporate Law
- Clinical Education
- Commercial Law
- Contracts
- Legal Profession
- Nonprofit Organizations
Biography
Jay A. Mitchell (BA ’80) is the founding director of the law school’s Organizations and Transactions Clinic. The clinic focuses on corporate and transactional practice. Its clients, all of whom are established nonprofit corporations, include national leaders in hunger relief, the performing and visual arts, science education, agriculture, and other fields. The clinic also maintains a resource website, targeted to lawyers engaging in pro bono work, that contains approximately 275 forms and model legal documents for nonprofits.
Professor Mitchell teaches and writes about bringing design sensibilities and methods to transactional practice. His book Picturing Corporate Practice, an introduction to corporate work written in collaboration with a graphic designer, encourages lawyers to make sketches and other visuals, and offers multiple examples of their use in everyday legal work. He has written about the use of product and graphic design principles in creating legal documents, and about the use of visuals in commercial contracts. Professor Mitchell has also published articles about preparing students for transactional practice including helping them learn how to read as a lawyer.
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)
Related Organizations
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