A companion laboratory to the required Business Associations course, students are trained in counseling clients and negotiating business formation, dissolution, and liability issues as well as drafting appropriate documents.
Develops the skills necessary to search publicly available information to find vital facts about individuals, businesses, organizations, markets, and industries, and conduct so-called “due diligence” investigations. The first focus is on using public records, commercial services, and company information to gather information about parties. The second focus is on data and statistics, including finding, processing, and interpreting that information.
Prepares students who wish to focus on transactional law. The course is also intended to facilitate research for the student's legal research and writing requirement, although it does not satisfy the writing requirement. The course will refresh and refine research skills, help students to think systemically about legal research, and familiarize students with applicable resources relevant to transactional law including business organizations, tax, pension, labor and employment, competitive business intelligence, real estate, securities, sale of businesses, etc. As the final project, students will have the opportunity to develop an in-depth research "path finder" or guide for an approved topic of their own choosing.
The course is limited to students who represent the law school in faculty supervised regional, national or international lawyering skills competition. Students enrolled in this course will be representing the school in various negotiation and drafting competitions and meets, Students will research a problem involving business transactions, tax, or intellectual property and prepare analysis and problem solving strategies.
Under faculty supervision, students will counsel start-up companies and their owners and implement business planning advice by drafting articles of incorporation and organization, by-laws, partnership agreements and other business contracts. Other business-related matters ranging from regulatory, consumer, licensing, and taxation requirements; copyrights, trademark, and patent creation; and 501(C)(3) applications for non-profits may also be covered in this course. Clinic students will also receive classroom instruction in the areas of client counseling and business planning and drafting of business documents.
An estimated 60% of people in civil cases go to court without a lawyer, usually because they cannot afford or access attorneys. In this clinic, student provide access to legal information and advice for these individuals. Students work in the Self-Help Clinic at UMKC, in collaboration with Legal Aid of Western Missouri, providing brief advice, referral, and limited scope representation. Clinic students will expand the reach of the clinic by applying principles of entrepreneurship and using technological tools to build tools and programs for self-represented clients to understand and access their legal rights.
Students in the Kansas City Tax Clinic represent low-income clients before the IRS and in United Stated Tax Court under the supervision of the Clinic Directors. Cases may include delinquent filers, examinations, administrative appeals, Tax Court litigation, innocent spouse, and collection cases including due process, installment agreements, and offers-in-compromise. Students also receive classroom instruction in tax procedure subjects and in client counseling. There is a ten hour orientation prior to the beginning of classes. There is also an additional five hour lecture held during the course of the semester.
Under the supervision of faculty who are licensed attorneys, students will counsel start-up companies and their owners and assist with intellectual property matters related to Trade Secrets, Copyright Trademark, & Patent and planning in connection with concepts related to Business Torts. Students will conduct patentability and trademark searches, prepare patent landscape reports, trademark registrations, opposition and cancellation responses and assist Clinic clients in identifying trade secrets and potential patentable inventions and preparing invention disclosures as well as provide general intellectual property information and advice to Clinic clients.
The CLEI is a vehicle for multidisciplinary collaborators to form and deploy teams that promote the use of entrepreneurship and innovation in providing high-quality education, addressing societal needs with a diversity of knowledge bases and perspectives, and producing thoughtful and effective solutions to generate public good. UMKC’s CLEI is led by the Law School because laws are involved in virtually all challenging endeavors and the Law School emphasizes training context-aware, creative, brave, and generous lawyers to join in teams that are instruments of positive change in communities, businesses, policy, research, and the arts. We exemplify that belief by partnering with leaders from all fields in common missions to make all of the communities we serve more prosperous.