Michigan’s Legal Eagles

As part of a senior design project at the College of Engineering, a five-member team of University of Michigan students came up with an idea for a durable, low-cost infant warming blanket that uses innovative heat technology to keep at-risk babies safe and cozy. Last September, the team launched a start-up venture, called Warmilu, to continue the development and commercialization of their line of infant products. To address certain legal needs associated with the business, the co-founders applied to the new Entrepreneurship Clinic at the U-M Law School for assistance. 

The Entrepreneurship Clinic represents the first phase of the Zell Entrepreneurship and Law (ZEAL) Program, established in 2011 with a $5 million gift from Sam Zell (AB '63, JD '66, HLLD '05), a Law School alumnus. Zell, who also is the co-benefactor of the Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at Michigan’s Ross School of Business, intended the ZEAL Program to serve as a catalyst for entrepreneurial business and new venture creation across the U-M campus. The program includes the Entrepreneurship Clinic, launched in January, which offers student entrepreneurs a comprehensive suite of free business legal services related to governance documents, intellectual property assignments, employee agreements and vesting of ownership stock or LLC units. In the future, ZEAL will expand the entrepreneurship business law curriculum at the Law School.

“As material science and engineering students, we realized we needed legal help to move our company forward,” says Grace Hsia, Warmilu’s chief legal officer. In January, Warmilu was assigned to work with student-attorneys Thomas Stasi and Spencer Critchett under the faculty guidance of Adjunct Law Professor Bryce Pilz. The two law students helped the co-founders with important legal work, such as entity formation.

“The Entrepreneurship Clinic gave us the resources to build our company and become legally secure,” Hsia says. “They guided us through some hard discussions and answered our legal questions quickly. In short, they put us on the right track for future growth.” 

During its first semester in operation, the Entrepreneurship Clinic received more than 40 applications from student entrepreneurs and signed retainer letters with 13 clients. The co-founders of Snap Social Sports asked the clinic’s student-attorneys for help in drawing up articles of incorporation and employee contracts for their mobile app company. “The free legal assistance we received enabled us to direct our money toward other resources,” explains Jacob Lewin, an economics major, who started the company with Tarrence van As, an undergraduate engineering student.

The Entrepreneurship Clinic provides the strategic “missing piece” in the University’s entrepreneurial ecosystem that can help to accelerate the formation of new companies on campus and in the state of Michigan, says clinic director Dana Thompson (JD '99), clinical assistant professor of law. “The clinic makes legal services available to student entrepreneurs who otherwise would not be able to afford them,” she explains. “Our law students bring their legal expertise to these entrepreneurial ventures and at the same time gain experience by working with start-ups on transactional issues.” Currently, the Entrepreneurship Clinic is only open to enrolled U-M students.

More information: Contact Dana Thompson, director of the Entrepreneurship Clinic, at drthomp@umich.edu or 734.615.6957 or visit the website.