Former senior legal executive at Levi Strauss & Co., Jay A. Mitchell will launch a new Business Clinic at Stanford Law School. Following his appointment to the Law School, this summer, as lecturer in law, Mitchell will also head its new Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic as director. Students in the clinic will get a chance to learn public interest practice of law in nonprofit sector and the under-represented segment through business and transaction work.
Mitchell has over two decades of corporate practice and business experience and comes to the school from Levi Strauss & Co.
One of the 10 clinical programs at Stanford Law School, the new Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic will draft and negotiate contracts, assist with funding and financing projects, and advise on governance. It will also handle communications, compliance matters, as well as provide general corporate support to the clinic’s clients.
Besides Mitchell, the clinic will have Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe Teaching Fellow, and students. They will form new entities and get the chance to hone basic analytical, editorial, counseling, planning, and negotiation skills.
Director of Clinical Education and Associate Dean for Public Service and Clinical Education, Prof. Larry Marshall said the new clinic will be Stanford’s maiden venture into transactional program. He hopes the Clinic will deliver the message that public service and pro bono practice can take place in the “boardroom as well as the courtroom.”
Stanford Law School runs several clinics that take legal action in a number of specialized fields. Many of the School’s clinics, besides providing free legal assistance to low-income Bay Area clients, have brought laurels by winning important federal rulings in the areas of immigrants’ rights, environmental protection, disability rights, among others.