WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

MORGANTOWN -– The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation – long-time supporters of West Virginia University's Entrepreneurship Law Clinic – has awarded the clinic a $127,000 grant for its services.

"It's all about service, and that service is instrumental in what lawyers will be doing in the future or wherever they lead," said Patricia Hureston Lee, director of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, on the role the clinic plays in providing start-up companies, small businesses, non-profits and individuals legal services.

"We get to see entrepreneurs begin to create their dreams and create jobs for their communities and to me that's exciting, that's a success."

The funds are intended to continue the clinic's legal assistance to entrepreneurial business, assist in opportunities for placement of law students in business development and economic development organizations and the training of law students to serve entrepreneurs and organizations that could not otherwise afford legal assistance.

The Entrepreneurship Law Clinic gives third-year law students, under the supervision of faculty, the opportunity to gain invaluable experience by supporting clients in areas of counseling for a product plan or business organization; licensing; employee and contractor agreements; intellectual property; financing and venture capital; planning and negotiation; dispute resolution; and generalized assistance in business formation, planning and strategy.

The WVU College of Law's Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Law Program was recently recognized as a Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA 2010 Distinguished Partner by the Kaufman Foundation, the world's largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. The program was recognized for its contributions in shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The WVU College of Law's Entrepreneurship Law Clinic is one of a variety of legal services provided by the college's Clinical Law Program including: the Child and Family Law Clinic with its Medical Legal Partnership in cooperation with the WVU Children's Hospital, International Human Rights and Immigration Clinic, Tax Clinic and the national Innocence Project that brings together the College of Law and WVU's forensics program to help exonerate prisoners who were wrongly convicted in West Virginia.

To inquire about engaging the services of the Entrepreneurship Law and Innovation Program, please download the ELC Intake form located at http://elc.wvu.edu or call 304-293-0955.

The award was made payable to the WVU Foundation, Inc. The WVU Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation that generates, receives and administers private gifts for the benefit of WVU.