The Equitable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic supports underserved, high-impact entrepreneurial organizations that transform the marketplace and society more broadly with their innovations and creations.
We accomplish our mission by:
The Equitable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic is grateful that financial and in-kind support to pursue this mission comes from a variety of sources, including the Law College, corporations, law firms and individuals. This program is approved by the State Bar of Michigan as an entity eligible to receive pro bono contributions from attorneys. The clinic is grateful for the support it has received in the past, and looks forward to receiving additional funding from new donors to expand its critical services.
The EEILC shares the dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion of Michigan State University set forth in its strategic plan, to "providing opportunity through education and building the future of Michigan and the nation with the talent and contributions of individuals from all backgrounds and communities."1 The EEILC also takes seriously its professional obligations under Michigan Rule of Professional Conduct 6.5(a), which states in relevant part that "[a] lawyer shall take particular care to avoid treating [persons involved in the legal process] discourteously or disrespectfully because of the person’s race, gender, or other protected personal characteristic."2 The mission and work of the Equitable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic is further inspired by, and actively advances, any "movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression."3
The Equitable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic collectively acknowledges that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg—Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. In particular, the University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. We recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan’s 12 federally recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Michigan State University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.