Corporate Connections

Businesses need lawyers who can react quickly and competently in a fast-moving world.  Cincinnati Law’s Business & Entrepreneurship curriculum prepares you to hit the ground running after law school by teaching you the necessary substantive law and the skills you need to represent business clients, along with giving you real-world work experience.

The Corporate Law Center at Cincinnati Law connects opportunities in business and corporate settings— inside and outside of Cincinnati Law—to ensure that you get real-world insights about this high-demand field for legal professionals. The Corporate Law Center at Cincinnati Law consists of three primary components designed to give students:

1. a broad foundation of substantive knowledge;
2. the practical skills necessary to represent businesses in the new economy; and
3. significant real-world experience.

These three modes of learning are integrated so that each experience complements the others. Our students also have many opportunities to learn from Business Law scholars and practitioners.

Substantive Courses – As a Cincinnati Law student, you may elect to take a wide range of courses in business, corporate, and tax law. These courses provide you with a detailed foundation in the fundamental areas of Business Law, particularly the legal forms for business entities, tax, corporate finance, intellectual property, and contracts. We also offer a variety of specialized business courses for those seeking to focus in particular Business Law practices, such as labor and employment, health care, securities regulation, and mergers and acquisitions. The College of Law and the College of Business offer a joint degree whereby a student earns both a J.D. and a Masters of Business Administration in four years.

Practical Skills – The practical skills program with the Corporate Law Center is designed to hone your expertise in the fundamental tasks that all business attorneys must master. The core of this program is our upper level writing program, where you will learn how to analyze, draft, and review complex commercial contracts in concise, understandable language. You will also practice counseling clients in a variety of simulated contexts in your client counseling workshop, and may elect to take a class on the fundamentals of accounting and finance, providing you with a critical foundation for understanding business issues that affect all clients.

The capstone of the skills program is a transactions course offered in your third year. Working in teams, you will negotiate, draft, and complete the sale of a private company from beginning to end. You may find it the most demanding — yet most fulfilling — course in your law school experience. Collectively, the skills program empowers you to hit the ground running on your first day of practice.

Corporate Law Fellows work hand-in-hand with professors and other fellows in developing the Center’s programs, organizing the Symposium, researching topics of academic interest, and participating in the Fellows’ reading and networking group.  Fellows also are automatically eligible to participate in the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic during their second year of law school, and will receive priority placement for our summer externships at the OCEAN accelerator and Mortar. 

If you are interested in being considered early for this fellowship opportunity, please apply here.