June 21, 2017

Southwestern Establishes a Concentration in Technology Law and Entrepreneurship

Website page with up-to-date information on this concentration:  https://www.swlaw.edu/curriculum/concentrations-and-customizations 

Southwestern Law School has created an optional curricular Concentration in Technology Law and Entrepreneurship as part of the JD degree. Southwestern has been long known for its entertainment and media law program, as well as for its extensive criminal law program, and far-reaching public interest law program. With this JD concentration, Southwestern is solidifying its leadership position in technology law and entrepreneurship.

Because of the law school’s location in the heart of Los Angeles, Southwestern is able to collaborate with companies in nearby Silicon Beach on externships, clinics, and job placement to enhance this new concentration. The thousands of tech startups in Los Angeles can be tapped to provide guest speakers in classes, and industry experts have already offered their insights to students in Southwestern’s new course focusing on developing tech startup companies. The $3 billion spent on start-up funding in Los Angeles in 2016 speaks to how important the tech sector and entrepreneurship are to L.A.

Southwestern recognizes that the fast-changing environment of high-technology industries requires lawyers capable of developing and implementing innovative legal strategies. The program will train students for the 21^st-century workforce by allowing them to participate in a structured series of advanced courses in intellectual property, technology law, commercial transactions, corporate structuring, entrepreneurship, and regulatory, administrative and international law, to name but a few—all leading to a Concentration that reflects their acquired expertise.

Professor Michael D. Scott, who taught his first computer law class at Southwestern in 1976 and still teaches an updated version of that course (CyberLaw) today, helped spearhead this program. According to Professor Scott, “Los Angeles is rapidly becoming a world-class technology hub. Our Technology Law and Entrepreneurship Concentration and related services will allow students to custom-tailor their curriculum to meet the legal needs of the myriad tech companies establishing themselves in Southern California.”

Core courses include:

• Copyright Law
• Cyberlaw
• Drafting Business Contracts
• Drafting Technology Agreements
• Drafting/Negotiating Video Game Agreements
• IP Licensing: Law & Practice
• Patent Law
• Representing Entrepreneurs
• Trademark Law

Elective courses include:

• Antitrust Law
• Business Planning
• Developing Web-Based Startups: Merging Law, Business, and Technology (formerly Mobile App Challenge)
• Entertainment Law
• Entertainment Law & the Evolving Web
• Entertainment Law Blog
• Externship
• Information Privacy Law
• International and Comparative IP Law
• International Business Transactions
• Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiating
• Mass Media Law
• Mergers and Acquisitions: Law, Strategy and Finance
• Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
• Patent Preparation and Prosecution
• Strategic Alliances
• Telecommunications Law and Policy
• Video Game Agreements
• Video Game Law