A student called my name in the hallway today.

“I’m taking your Entrepreneurship class next semester. Can you tell me more about it?”

I told him the premise of the course: Practicing the method and mindset of entrepreneurship week by week, and applying that to the practice of law and the legal profession. I asked if he had any experience with entrepreneurship.

“I do,” he said. “I started my own nonprofit in California doing things people need after incarceration, like expungements and driver’s licenses.” He told me his plans for doing more and expanding geographically.

I told him he was exactly the kind of student I’d hoped would take the class — students who are already thinking and acting entrepreneurially and want to consciously develop skills to take it to the next level. Or who want to and need a springboard to get started.

Honestly, I’m not surprised so many students signed up for the class (roughly fifteen percent of the entire eligible student body). This generation of students thinks creatively. They imagine a different society, and they want to help build it.

Some students get discouraged in law school. As they learn about the legal system, they see so many things glaringly wrong with it, and they should. The law is always imperfect and must constantly evolve. But too often we become consumed with just mastering the law that’s already on the books, as if it’s static and set.

It isn’t. The law is a not just a set of rules — it’s a set of rules for changing the rules. I try to emphasize this in my doctrinal classes, but the culture of radical change can be obscured by the day to day of compliance.

Entrepreneurship for Lawyers flips the script. We start with change. Change is our engine. Once you know how to drive, you can take the legal profession anywhere you want!