Startup Law: Sustainability equips students to advise founders and early-stage organizations from ideation through initial capitalization and launch, including overall strategy, product counsel, go-to-market, intellectual property assignment to the organization, fundraising, and corporate governance, as well as the ethical, legal, and business issues that start-up attorneys face when advising their clients, whether as in-house counsel or at a law firm.

The course proceeds along two concurrent experiential paths: First, the students will serve as outside counsel to a fictitious entity, Model Corporation. Through this simulation students will apply their knowledge of the history & context of the startup economy, explore frameworks for creating value, draft documents, and analyze case studies which highlight specific problems that arise for startups and their stakeholders in order to counsel Model Corporation through its early life cycle.

Second, Startup Law will provide counsel to Stanford-affiliated founders working on climate & sustainability. Students will analyze relevant issues and use formal analytical frameworks, including business strategy, legal research, policy strategy, and design thinking, to craft a comprehensive review of the startup’s position in its business and legal environment, and provide well-supported recommendations or other deliverables to create value and mitigate risk. The class will focus on one or more specific legal issues faced by the startup which will provide practical legal experience in advising the startup on these issues.

This course counts towards the Experiential Learning (EL) and Professional Writing (PW) law degree requirements.