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Lack of access to financial capital is a barrier for many entrepreneurs who seek to grow their business venture. In an effort to democratize the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Congress and the Obama Administration enacted the JOBS Act, which implements and regulates crowdfunding. The democratic nature of the online crowdfunding platforms is a seemingly attractive solution to structural and institutionalized barriers to fundraising within the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Although the JOBS Act is a laudable step, the legislation does not in practice help entrepreneurs and herein lies one of its greatest shortcomings. The JOBS Act is unduly burdensome and is yet another barrier for entrepreneurs. Merely permitting underrepresented entrepreneurs and unsophisticated investors to engage in an alternative investment scheme of crowdfunding to raise capital does not solve the problems of access to traditional sources of capital. This article makes concrete proposals for addressing these shortcomings.

The economic, political, and social volatility of the sixties and seventies, out of which clinical legal education was born, has certain mythical qualities for most law students, and perhaps some law professors. America still bears the scars of the economic policies of those previous eras, such as redlining, blockbusting, poverty and urban decay. While the realities of the era may seem out of reach for many of our students, those policies arising out of that era have contributed to the wealth gap in this country, which has worsened over the last twenty years. Now more than ever, society needs social justice lawyers, not just practice-ready lawyers, and, in particular, not just litigators. Despite this need, transactional clinical pedagogy prioritizes the practice-readiness of students. While an important concern, prioritizing student practice-readiness seems misguided at best and fails our students at worst.This Article challenges the dichotomy between practice-readiness and client service in a business law clinic and expands transactional clinical pedagogy by reinforcing the public interest and social justice functions served by such clinics. Further, this Article highlights the socio-historic contexts of transactional lawyering and argues that transactional lawyering and, specifically, the uniqueness of a transactional clinic, can offer a public service model to students. The primary contribution of this Article is a perspective on transactional clinical pedagogy that is inclusive of the civil rights movement and the fight for economic rights.

The economic, political, and social volatility of the sixties and seventies, out of which clinical legal education was born, has certain mythical qualities for most law students, and perhaps some law professors. America still bears the scars of the economic policies of those previous eras, such as redlining, blockbusting, poverty and urban decay. While the realities of the era may seem out of reach for many of our students, those arising out of that era have contributed to the wealth gap in this country, which has worsened over the last twenty years. Now more than ever, society needs social justice lawyers, not just practice-ready lawyers, and, in particular, not just litigators. Despite this need, transactional clinical pedagogy prioritizes the practice-readiness of students. While an important concern, prioritizing student practice-readiness seems misguided at best and fails our students at worst. The scarcity of legal services and the question of whether for-profit clients, such as entrepreneurs and microentrepreneurs, are truly underserved populations further exacerbate the tension and effects of omitting social and economic justice teaching in favor of practice-readiness. Because there are many people without access to legal services or involved in the criminal justice system without an attorney, it is hard to justify resources being allocated to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

"Everything Must Go." "Permanently Closed." "Space for Rent." These signs of the time sum up the plight of many small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the federal government's Payroll Protection Program and the Federal Reserve's Main Street Lending Program helped businesses across the United States in the early months of the crisis, more than 100,000 of them have closed their doors forever, according to research by Yelp. In the fourth episode of "Beyond Unprecedented": The Post-Pandemic Economy, host Eric Talley welcomes Columbia Law Professors Lynnise E. Pantin '03 and Tim Wu to discuss the types of assistance state and municipal lawmakers and the federal government can or should provide to keep small businesses afloat and why they are optimistic about the future for entrepreneurs. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/beyond_unprecedented/1004/thumbnail.jpg