CREATE-X, Tech’s entrepreneurial initiative, recently launched LegalBuzz, a program that provides student inventors with legal office hours. Students can talk to lawyers from Troutman Sanders, many of whom are Tech alumni, who will offer pro-bono advice on intellectual property, corporate-legal structures and government relations.
With entrepreneurship flourishing on Tech’s campus, CREATE-X saw a growing need for basic legal assistance for student entrepreneurs. With office hours every two weeks on Wednesday from 4–6 p.m., student have completely free access to top lawyers from an international law firm.
It is important to note that student inventors do not have attorney-client privilege, meaning that the communications with the lawyers are not confidential. As the program grows, CREATE-X plans to reach out to different Atlanta firms to join the programs.
Other schools, like Boston University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have similar programs. These programs are run by law students and seek to fill the growing demand for legal advice among college entrepreneurs.
CREATE-X works to instill entrepreneurial confidence in Tech students through their Start-Up Lab, a semester-long class that teaches students start-up basics, consumer discovery and the dynamics of market demand.
Additionally, CREATE-X provides the Idea to Prototype program, which gives students the chance to receive guidance, academic credit and funding for developing their prototypes from ideas to reality.
Tech offers a similar program called Start-Up Summer, in which teams go from an idea to a fully-operating start-up. The teams have access to $20,000 in funding to launch their ideas into reality over the course of the summer.
Troutman Sanders aims to help students with these start-up ideas proceed in an informed and legal manner.