Cornell Law School is deepening its commitment to supporting entrepreneurship initiatives through clinical education with the establishment of a new dual-campus center for entrepreneurship. With the support of a transformative gift from Franci J. Blassberg, A.B. ’75, J.D. ’77, and Joseph L. Rice III, P ’16, the Blassberg-Rice Center for Entrepreneurship Law will operate both in Ithaca an at the Cornell Tech campus.
Cornell Law School is deepening its commitment to supporting entrepreneurship initiatives through clinical education with the establishment of a new dual-campus center for entrepreneurship. With the support of a transformative gift from Franci J. Blassberg, A.B. ’75, J.D. ’77, and Joseph L. Rice III, P ’16, the Blassberg-Rice Center for Entrepreneurship Law will operate both in Ithaca and at the Cornell Tech campus.
“We are so excited to help support the incredible program at Cornell Law School to train students to
be thoughtful counsellors to entrepreneurs and to provide an enhanced opportunity for entrepreneurs to get excellent legal guidance,” said Blassberg.
The Center will broaden the Clinic’s existing Ithaca work. In parallel, it will give law students who choose to spend a semester at Cornell Tech an opportunity to do live-client work in the New York City area—a first for the law school’s Cornell Tech curriculum.
“The creation of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic has been one of the most important developments in our clinical program,” says Jens David Ohlin, Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law. “It’s been hugely successful—so successful that its capacity isn’t nearly enough to satisfy student demand. This expansion will allow us to scale the program while keeping the intensive, hands-on approach that makes it so effective. We can broaden our reach, turning this clinic into a full-blown center and offering our corporate law students a transformational experience in New York City.”
“We are so excited to help support the incredible program at Cornell Law School to train students to be thoughtful counsellors to entrepreneurs and to provide an enhanced opportunity for entrepreneurs to get excellent legal guidance.”
FRANCI J. BLASSBERG
Ohlin and Celia Bigoness, who founded the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic and will now direct the Blassberg-Rice Center, expect to hire two full-time clinical instructors in 2024, one based in Ithaca and the other at the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island. They are seeking to hire experienced lawyers with an established commitment to both startup legal services and legal education. Those hires would triple the number of faculty in the Clinic, the number of client businesses served by the Clinic, and the number of law students able to participate in the Clinic.
