Job Details

Clinical Faculty (Entrepreneurial Law Clinic)
Go to our website »

Position Number: 5606851
Location: Boulder, CO
Position Type: Business - Business Law

Clinical Faculty (Entrepreneurial Law Clinic)

Requisition Number: 58037
Location: Boulder Colorado
Employment Type: Faculty
Schedule: Full Time
Posting Close Date:
Date Posted:

Job Summary

The University of Colorado Law School seeks applicants to lead its Entrepreneurial Law Clinic. The anticipated start date for this faculty position (the "ELC Professor") is July 1, 2025, with teaching in the clinic to begin in August 2025. The ELC Professor is a full-time academic year position. The position may be on the clinical teaching track or tenure track, depending on the candidate's interest and experience. Rank and appointment classification will depend on qualifications and experience.
The University of Colorado Boulder is committed to building a culturally diverse community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to contributing to an inclusive campus environment. We are an Equal Opportunity employer, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Who We Are

We are an engaged and inclusive community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who help one another succeed. Our faculty is highly regarded for its scholarship, its engagement in policy work, and its contributions to the wider community. Our selective admissions process keeps our student body small, enabling our faculty, staff, alumni, and community to invest deeply in each student's success, while preserving resources for innovative faculty research. We take our responsibility to educate and train future lawyers very seriously. Our curriculum, research centers, and experiential learning opportunities are designed to prepare students for success in today's changing legal environment.

The ELC, launched in 2000, ranks among the nation's most established transactional clinics. The ELC provides law students with practical experience in transactional law while offering valuable pro bono legal services to local startup businesses lacking access to legal resources. The ELC provides a rigorous experience for students interested in transactional law; promotes ethical values in transactional lawyers; and provides outreach that connects to communities outside the law school and serves clients who would otherwise remain under-served by the practicing bar. The ELC is a central part of Colorado Law's highly regarded business, technology, and intellectual property law curriculum, and offers collaborative opportunities with Colorado Law's interdisciplinary Silicon Flatirons Center.

What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be

The ELC Professor is responsible for creating a docket of cases and projects that will expose students to a wide range of business and transactional law issues. Nested in the startup hub of Boulder, Colorado, the ELC usually has a wait list of startup applicants who seek legal assistance. While the ELC Professor has discretion to take the ELC new directions, currently typical clinic work includes, but is not limited to, entity formation, commercial contracts, and select intellectual property matters. Current clinic students advise clients regarding choice of entity; help form companies and draft charters and constitutive documents; handle employment and independent contractor agreements; and assist with intellectual property.

The workload for a Clinical Track ELC Professor position would be divided as follows: 75% Teaching / 25% Service:

Teaching (75%): This position will teach an annual workload of 8 credits. Faculty members are expected to provide instruction and student advising as assigned by the Dean or their delegate. Classroom instruction responsibilities include holding class for the entire period for which the class is scheduled (including the final examination period) and evaluating students' work and assigning grades within the policies of Law School and University. Ongoing curriculum development and planning are also important components of teaching.
Service (25%): Faculty members are expected to engage in service to the institution, to students, and to their fields and/or the broader community and the public. University service involves membership in departmental, college-level and university committees, attending departmental meetings, processing routine paperwork, answering email, and participating in surveys as appropriate. It also involves engaging in the life of the law school and contributing to law school culture and community, including by mentoring students and fostering an environment of inclusivity.

The workload for a Tenured/Tenure-Track ELC Professor position would be divided as follows: 40% Teaching/40% Research/20% Service:

Teaching (40%): Faculty members are expected to teach an annual workload of 9-10 credits per academic year and to provide instruction as assigned by the Dean or their delegate. Classroom instruction responsibilities include holding class for the entire period for which the class is scheduled (including the final examination period) and evaluating students' work and assigning grades consistent with the policies of the Law School and University. Ongoing curriculum development and planning are also important components of teaching.
Research (40%): Faculty members are expected to research and prepare scholarly publications in their areas of expertise. Faculty members are expected to participate in scholarly and research activities that enhance their professional development and contribute to their disciplines, including by participating in academic conferences.
Service (20%): Faculty members are expected to engage in service to the institution, to students, and to their fields and/or the broader community and the public. University service involves membership in departmental, college-level and university committees, attending departmental meetings, processing routine paperwork, answering email, and participating in surveys as appropriate. It also involves engaging in the life of the law school and contributing to law school culture and community, including by mentoring students and fostering an environment of inclusivity.

What You Should Know

As part of the University of Colorado Boulder's deep commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, the campus has implemented a reference check program with respect to final candidates for tenured faculty appointments. The reference check program is intended to allow CU Boulder to collect and review information about a candidate's conduct at their previous institutions, specifically conduct related to sexual misconduct, harassment, and/or discrimination - before making hiring decisions. All final candidates for tenured faculty appointments are required to complete an Authorization to Release Information.

What We Can Offer

Clinical track pay range is $100,000-$140,000.
Tenure track Entry-Level (Associate Professor) pay range is $140,000-$155,000.
Tenure track Lateral (Associate Professor or Professor) pay range is $155,000-$215,000.
Onboarding assistance is available within School of Law guidelines.

Benefits

The University of Colorado offers excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, paid time off, tuition benefit and ECO Pass. The University of Colorado Boulder is one of the largest employers in Boulder County and offers an inspiring higher education environment. Learn more about the University of Colorado Boulder.

Be Statements

Be collaborative. Be creative. Be Boulder.

What We Require

The ELC Professor position, whether tenure track or clinical track, requires candidates to have a J.D. degree from an ABA-accredited law school.
Candidate must be licensed to practice law in at least one state and be eligible either to sit for the Colorado bar or to apply for an admission waiver.

Special Instructions

To apply, please submit the following materials:

Cover Letter addressed to the Search Committee describing your interest, your initial thoughts on the kinds of projects you would develop for the clinic, and relevant practice experience; consider also highlighting ways in which aspects of your record and/or background experience show potential for dedication to formal and informal service work, including community-building and student mentorship in service of inclusivity.
Current resume/CV.
Teaching Statement, describing your approach to legal education and any prior teaching experience.
Names and contact information for three references.
(Optional) If applying for consideration for tenure track appointment, please submit a "Job Talk" Paper (the principal paper you would like us to consider as an example of your scholarship) and a Research Agenda (describing your research to date along with proposed future trajectory of your research).

Should your candidacy advance, you may be asked to provide additional materials, including teaching evaluations.

For full consideration, please apply by September 1, 2024, although we recommend that you submit your materials as soon as possible. The ELC Professor position will remain open until filled.

Note: Application materials will not be accepted via email. For consideration, applications must be submitted through CU Boulder Jobs.

For questions, please contact Professor Brad Bernthal, Chair of the Clinical Appointments Committee, brad.bernthal@colorado.edu, or Victoria Johnson, Faculty Affairs Program Manager, at victoria.a.johnson@colorado.edu.

In compliance with the Colorado Job Application Fairness Act, in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

To apply, visit https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail/Clinical-Faculty-Entrepreneurial-Law-Clinic/58037