Legal Commentary

There was an interesting story in the National Law Journal a couple of days ago about such programs and a developing trend of using the law degree (either JD or LLM) as good basis for starting companies rather than joining law firms. Here's an excerpt:

A handful of U.S. law schools are getting into the entrepreneurial spirit.



Duke Law School announced on Thursday that it will launch a new Law and Entrepreneurship LLM program next academic year, while the University of Colorado School of Law is awaiting approval of a Entrepreneurial Law LLM it hopes to debut in the fall.



Courses and clinics focused on entrepreneurship and emerging companies aren't uncommon at law schools, but these new ventures would be the first LLM programs in the United States to focus expressly on the skills attorneys need to advise start-up companies or become entrepreneurs themselves.



James Cox, a law professor and the faculty director of Duke's new LLM program, said the timing is right for these programs because students and lawyers are taking a broader view of their career prospects.



"You're increasingly finding more law schools graduates who want to go out into the business world rather than go sit behind a desk at a law firm," he said.

I wonder if another development in law schools might be more emphasis on law firm management, focusing on solo and small firm practice, as students become more entrepreneurial and independent (from large and medium law firms) in their choice of legal career paths. I also wonder whether developments such as these might make law schools less reliant on large firms in placing their graduates and less tied to such firms more generally.