The Tech Startup Clinic provides high-potential startups pro bono legal services. The clinic guides startups through entity formation, funding questions, intellectual property issues, commercialization strategies, and operational and employment matters.
Victor Wang, Acting Director
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Tech Startup Clinic Acting Director
Victor Wang
Victor Wang brings over a decade of experience in intellectual property law to the Tech Startup Clinic. He has extensive experience in all aspects of patent practice, in both the U.S. and abroad. He has overseen the Cardozo/Google Patent Diversity Project, which is dedicated to helping people from underrepresented backgrounds secure patents. Before joining Cardozo’s faculty, he was a patent litigator, prosecutor, and transactional attorney at Baker McKenzie, where he was also a member of the recruiting committee. Victor was also a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, where he reviewed patents in the Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Memory art unit. He is a proud graduate of Cardozo School of Law, Class of 2015.
Tech Startup Clinic Director
Professor Aaron Wright
Aaron Wright is an expert in corporate and intellectual property law, with extensive experience in Internet and new technology issues. Before joining Cardozo's faculty, he sold a company to Wikia, the for-profit sister project of Wikipedia, where he ran Wikia’s New York office, served as General Counsel and Vice President of Product and Business Development, and helped build an open source search engine. Wright has clerked for the Honorable William J. Martini of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and worked as an associate at several prominent New York law firms, including Patterson Belknap and Jenner & Block. He received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Cardozo Law Review. He has a forthcoming book about blockchain technology and the law (co-authored with Primavera De Filippi) that will be published by Harvard University Press.
New York City has been the fastest-growing technology hub in the United States for the past 10 years and currently ranks No. 2 in the country behind Silicon Valley. Even though there has been rapid growth, there has not been a corresponding increase in low-cost assistance for growing technology companies in New York. Promising startups either waste critical early-stage capital on legal services or proceed without legal representation. Attempting to build a startup without a solid legal foundation creates risks for young companies, causing these companies to fall into easily avoidable legal traps that limit the potential for growth, funding and eventual job creation.
The Tech Startup Clinic provides high-potential startups pro bono legal services. The clinic guides startups through entity formation, funding questions, intellectual property issues, commercialization strategies, and operational and employment matters. An early-stage company, for example, must set up an initial legal structure, develop a strategy for protecting its intellectual property, raise capital, and draft agreements that shape the contours of its relationship with employees. Students participating in the clinic develop practical skills. They directly counsel and work with startup founders.
Students draft contracts, legal memoranda and work on policy issues. After clinic participation, students receive assistance finding externships or internships in-house with New York City startups.
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Tech Startup Clinic