Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law

The Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law seeks to improve the training of business lawyers in both transactional and litigation practices through the College of Law curriculum, its visiting professor program, faculty and student scholarship, the Wills Clinic, and presentations for the business bar and community both regionally and nationwide.

The Concentration in Business Transactions a curricular pathway for law students at the College of Law who are interested in careers in law and business. Many of the faculty members that teach within the Concentration have practiced with prestigious law firms and are uniquely qualified to mold a curriculum that merges practical experience, black letter law, theory, and policy.

The Clayton Center offers a Visiting Professor Program to attract and deploy within the institution individuals that are interested in teaching business law related courses and who are seeking to enter the academy from private practice. This includes the Visiting Professor of Corporate Governance and Investor Rights program.

The Center for Entrepreneurial Law, in partnership with the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., offers a field placement opportunity for 2L and 3L students. The field placement consists of a one to four hour credit placement in the Spring Semester and a paid position at a competitive hourly rate in the following summer, working on the business and legal aspects of technology commercialization and technology transfer. More information can be found in the program brochure. Admission to the field placement program is limited and competitive with a priority deadline of Nov. 1 for consideration for the following spring and summer.

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law is a law journal produced by students with the assistance of the College of Law faculty that covers the Center's activities, topical issues, and legal developments of interest to the business bar.

In order to provide research opportunities for students and research resources for faculty, the Center solicits research associates and projects to further its mission. All projects are business- or business-law-related and many include large scale collaborative efforts by students who survey and report on the state of the law in a particular area or work to produce commentary regarding transactional and other business and business-law matters.

The Wills Clinic, a part of the College of Law's legal clinic, provides students to practice applied wills, estates, and trust law in a live client context to further hone their planning and drafting skills.

The namesake of the Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law is James L. Clayton of Knoxville. Clayton, a 1964 graduate of the UT College of Law, is the founder of Knoxville-based Clayton Homes, Inc., now a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

The Center's Director is Professor George W. Kuney, who may be reached @ gkuney@utk.edu or 865-974-2500.

The Center's administrative support assistant is Sophia Brown, who may be reached at the Center's main telephone number 865-974-9917 or srbrown@utk.edu.