St. Mary’s University School of Law secured $5 million to establish a new business and transactional law center which includes a new business law clinic, a program where law students get hands-on experience helping community members who may not be able to afford private attorneys for their legal cases.
The Oatman Hill Foundation, created by estate of law alumnus Bennie Walter Bock, donated the funds for St. Mary’s to create the Bennie W. Bock II Center for Business and Transactional Law.
St. Mary’s will now be able to expand its catalogue of business law-related classes and act as a hub for the school’s business and law activities.
School of Law Dean Patricia Roberts said having the new center will help students focus less on litigation and more on the actual set up and maintenance of businesses through the clinic, especially since the school already has several faculty members with expertise in those areas.
Until the large donation, St. Mary’s only offered litigation-based clinics where students worked under the supervision of an attorney or their professor attorney to represent clients in the community who couldn’t afford private attorneys.
Currently, the five law clinics offered cover consumer protection, criminal justice, family law, immigration and human rights and real estate.
“I’m really looking forward to how the clinic will work well with other clinics, and how they’ll be able to bounce off of each other,” since cases can often dip into more than one area of law, Dakota Nichols said.
Nichols, a second-year doctor of jurisprudence law student who hopes to work in corporate law and establish his own firm one day, said the new clinic will benefit “the whole business community.”
“What our transactional law clinic is going to do is represent those in our community who are small businesses and nonprofits, who may not be able to afford their own attorney to start those businesses or engage in the set up of those businesses, but also the maintenance of those businesses to make sure that they’re complying with the law,” Roberts said.
Rather than focusing on litigation in a traditional court setting, Roberts said transactional law falls under the scope of business law and involves working through mergers, acquisitions, contracts and secure transactions for things like car or house loans.
Last year, the state opened up a new business court, the 4th Business Court Division, in San Antonio, and Gov. Greg Abbott appointed two judges to head the division. Judges Marialyn Barnard and Stacy Rogers Sharp were sworn in this January.
The new business court division and the establishment of the Bock Center at St. Mary’s School of Law are not connected, but they can and should be Roberts said.
“Could I see the Bennie Bock Center for Business and Transactional Law help the court, or support the court in some way, or have externs with the judges — perhaps future clerks with the judges? Absolutely,” Roberts said. “Could there be research opportunities? Yes, yes, yes. All of that.”
The new business law center comes at a time when the city is facing a future of huge business and development ventures such as Project Marvel, expansion of the San Antonio International Airport, becoming a Cyber Command center for the state and potential skyscraper construction plans at Port San Antonio.
As for student demand for more business law opportunities, Roberts said there’s plenty of it at St. Mary’s.
“Our business law courses are often full,” which is a good experience for any lawyer to have, not just business lawyers, Roberts said.
Connor Mack, another second-year law student enrolled in St. Mary’s Doctor of Jurisprudence degree program, said he’s excited about the new business law center, especially because it means a new business law clinic will open.
Even though Mack’s plans after law school involve practicing criminal justice and transitioning to civil investigations, he said he still sees the value of investing in a business law programs for law students.
“Part of being a lawyer is knowing that you’re advising your client on what their legal issue is, but also what the business implications of that are,” Mack said.
Every decision a lawyer makes to safeguard a client’s interests, even the decisions on whether to litigate a certain matter or not, is essentially a business decision for the lawyer and their client, Mack said.
Nichols agrees.
“Both with law and business — it affects literally every person, whether you want it to or not,” Nichols said. “Having an awareness of how the two work, individually and together, will not only be helpful for people in the field of business as proprietors, but also people as consumers.”
Last year, St. Mary’s Greehey School of Business started offering a business and law undergraduate program, which has been very popular Roberts said.
The vision for the new business and transaction law center includes cross collaboration between St. Mary’s different schools, especially the business school, Roberts said.
Outside of establishing the new business center and clinic for $2 million, another $2 million will go toward a student fund for Bock scholars, “talented School of Law students interested in business and entrepreneurship.” The funds are for scholarships and learning opportunities outside the classroom, spokesperson for the school Jennifer Lloyd said.
Roberts said the student fund is anticipated to help students with the costs associated with being involved in the clinic’s representation of community members, businesses and nonprofits. The funds could also be used to fund unpaid externships or summer apprenticeships.
The remaining $1 million will pay for the Bock Center’s leadership, and Roberts said the school already found a professor to lead the center’s business and transactional law clinic.
The new business and transactional law center is expected to be operating by the fall.
