Students in the WashU Law Entrepreneurship Clinic recently teamed up with their counterparts in SLU Law’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic to present an “LLC Bootcamp” for entrepreneurs in Farmington, Missouri. The workshop was hosted in partnership with the Missouri Small Business Development Center (SBDC), whose mission is “to educate entrepreneurs, business owners, and workforce to realize success.” Students from both schools worked together to develop and deliver sessions on entity selection, company governance, operating agreement basics, and ensuring ownership of intellectual property, presenting to a full room of local business owners at the SBDC’s Farmington office. The event was the first coordinated effort by the two clinics to extend their reach beyond Metro St. Louis into the surrounding counties. The SBDC also served attendees some excellent local barbecue.
Students described the experience as a valuable chance to apply clinic skills in a new setting. One said it gave them practice teaching “difficult legal concepts in a digestible, client-facing manner,” a skill that is critical for attorneys but rarely practiced in law school. Another noted that connecting with entrepreneurs outside St. Louis, who may not have the same access to free legal resources, was especially meaningful: “The number of entrepreneurs in the audience shows how much of an opportunity there is to expand the legal services we offer to other communities.” Collaborating with SLU also let students compare approaches and draw on each others’ experiences. One student reflected, “We can accomplish more collectively, especially when trying to expand the number of entrepreneurs we can reach.” The collaboration also gave students a refreshing opportunity to situate their education within the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. As one put it, “Meeting some of the hospitable and fascinating people of Farmington was a great way to widen our world.”
