Pritzker Law, including many JD-MBA students, had an unusual class discussion in their Entrepreneurship Law course this summer: software design. The course, co-taught by professors Steve Reed and Esther Barron, demonstrates an important emphasis on basic technology proficiency for law students championed by the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center.
Now, you may be asking yourself, why would a law student need to understand technology or even software development?
Lawyers are increasingly called upon to work with clients in the tech sector, and that work requires experience in those areas. Coding, for example, is of increasing importance in the law world as it applies to intellectual property and patent law for tech companies and start-ups. The idea is that by taking specialized courses in the practical application of skills like software development or coding, students gain first-hand understanding of the process required to create a new online venture and thereby have a better grasp of how their client’s product is unique in that world. It doesn’t mean the students become developers themselves, but it gives them a common language to have discussions with their clients and prepares them to strategize negotiations with regulatory bodies.
The Kellogg School of Management and Northwestern Pritzker Law offer the only integrated Juris Doctor MBA program in the nation, and incorporating the instruction of practical skills like software development and coding into the entrepreneurship “pathway” – an integrated, cross-functional sequence of courses designed to address a particular skill set or industry for which there is active student and recruiter demand – further sets the program apart. This advance was spurred from work at the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center, which provides intensive, hands-on training for students who want to be transactional lawyers or founders of start-up companies.
In addition to the introduction of software design, the program uses many innovative teaching approaches, including the class’s location. This summer the entrepreneurship class was taught in the Law School’s brand new technologically-advanced smart classroom, Savner Hall. The active learning classroom is designed to encourage conversation and project-based work over traditional lecturing. Professors Barron and Reed also regularly bring in guest speakers so that the students can hear from active lawyers what it takes to represent an entrepreneur and the types of issues they can expect to face as legal counsel to start-up firms.
Instruction of the software design component in the class is contributed by Northwestern alum Neal Sales-Griffin. Sales-Griffin is the founder of The Starter League, an immersive software engineering school based in Chicago. His journey from student to entrepreneur began as an undergrad at Northwestern. The law students heard from Sales-Griffin what it took to launch his company, work through a merger, and apply for patents and trademarks. Through his story, they began to understand the landscape they’ll enter after graduation.
Ben Bradley, a student in the class and entrepreneur himself, said of his time in the class, “Being a professional in today’s world, it’s clear that without a working knowledge of technology you’d be left in the dust. It’s great to hear from these guest speakers and learn things like coding as part of our law classes to create a truly holistic learning experience.”
The Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center’s emphasis on teaching technology proficiency to JD, Masters of Science in Law (MSL), JD-MBA and LLM students will be further developed in the Innovation Lab, a new interdisciplinary course launching at Pritzker Law in Spring 2017.