Smith Anderson Attorneys Guide Law Students Within Duke University’s Start-Up Ventures Clinic

Raleigh, N.C. – In an article published by Duke Law Advocate, “Smith Anderson Attorneys Contribute Guidance, Expertise to Start-Up Ventures Clinic Students,” Smith Anderson lawyers are highlighted for their support of the University’s Start-Up Ventures Clinic program. The contributions recognized within the article span from the lawyer’s roles as program mentors to the overall guidance they offer in support of the Clinic’s mission.

The mission of Duke Law’s Start-Up Clinic is to provide start-up companies with legal consulting services provided by law students. Each student is paired with a Smith Anderson lawyer at the start of each semester, who serves as their mentor. As Smith Anderson partner Geoff Krouse states in the article, “I think that’s the value we add: Based on experience, we can help streamline the questions for which they need to get answers from their clients, and then point them in one direction or another depending on what their business objectives are.” Start-Up Clinic Director, Jeff Ward, adds “Smith Anderson has provided something that no law school clinic can provide on its own — a close connection to the legal professionals that serve our community’s entrepreneurs.”

About Smith Anderson
Founded in 1912, Smith Anderson has grown to become the largest business and litigation law firm headquartered in the Research Triangle region and one of the largest in North Carolina. We provide a full range of legal services to a diverse and dynamic group of regional, national and international companies. Over one hundred years of practicing law has grounded our Firm's culture, informed our perspective and provided us the insight necessary to help our clients succeed. Over time, our core principles have remained unchanged. We remain personally dedicated to the success, prosperity and betterment of our clients, our friends and the communities we serve. 

About Geoff Krouse
Geoff Krouse joined Smith Anderson in 2005, after almost eight years of practicing in the areas of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, securities and private equity in New York with Vinson & Elkins and Andrews & Kurth. Geoff’s practice includes representing public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions and recapitalization transactions, public offerings and private placements of securities, and other corporate and compliance matters. For more information, please visit his bio.

About Duke Law’s Start-Up Ventures Clinic
The Duke Law’s Start-Up Ventures Clinic provides legal advice and assistance to seed and early stage entrepreneurial ventures that have not yet raised significant amounts of outside capital. The clinic assists clients in a wide variety of legal matters including formation, intellectual property protection, commercialization strategies and operational issues. For more information, please visit https://law.duke.edu/startupventures/.