Entrepreneurship and the law focus of new U of C class

By Justin Schellenberg, October 20 2017 —

The University of Calgary Faculty of Law is offering a new course which explores the connection between entrepreneurship and the law.

LAW 693 works through issues a startup company may face, such as when to incorporate, when to use sole-proprietorship and how to raise money.

“The course is designed to come at the question of what entrepreneurs and startups need from lots of different legal positions,” LAW 693 professor Bryce Tingle said. “We talk about the macroeconomic context for new business formation — what’s going on in the economy in a macro way, how it impacts what kinds of companies get started in Canada.”

Tingle, who worked on the creation of the course, said it covers everything a startup company would need to get up and running from a legal standpoint.

He added that he thinks startups are responsible for nearly all newly created jobs in the country.

“They’re responsible disproportionately for exports, they’re responsible disproportionately for innovation in the economy,” Tingle said. “They have a huge economic impact on the country.”

Ryan Logan, a law student in his final year at the U of C, said Tingle’s classes are very popular and informative.

“This is one of the best courses I’ve taken at university,” Logan said. “If you can get into the class, do it.”

Logan said the entrepreneurial law course teaches students how to use initial agreements to help startups in the early days of their business.

“We’re looking at how to start a company and all the basic agreements that go into effect during the preliminary stage and what their implications are,” Logan said.

Tingle said the BLG Business Venture Clinic is closely tied to the entrepreneurial law course and that anyone who joins the clinic is required to take the new class.

“It’s a clinic that makes law students available to startup companies, most of which come out of the university community,” Tingle said. “Students can give them legal information they need to know and can help them draft contracts and articles of incorporation or license agreements. Whatever they need to help form the company and get it off and running.”

Though the course is specifically designed for law students, Tingle said he considers the class “open to anyone.”

“I think it would be very useful to have for people from the engineering department, the business department,” Tingle said. “If they want to be entrepreneurs, this is the kind of stuff they need to know. These are the rules of the road.”