Lauren Rogal will join Vanderbilt’s law faculty as an assistant clinical professor of law and launch a Community Enterprise Clinic in fall 2017.
Professor Rogal’s appointment was announced by Dean Chris Guthrie and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Susan Kay.
“Lauren’s clinic will afford our students a wonderful opportunity to gain hands-on experience dealing with legal issues involving almost every aspect of running a nonprofit or business enterprise, including contract drafting, employment and tax issues, and negotiating deals and business agreements,” Kay said. “Students interested in almost any area of transactional law will benefit from the new Community Enterprise Clinic.”
Rogal is currently completing a two-year clinical teaching fellowship at Georgetown University Law Center, where she is also earning an LL.M. in advocacy and supervising students in the Social Enterprise and Nonprofit Law Clinic. Before accepting the teaching fellowship, Rogal was an associate with Klamp & Associates, a D.C.-based law firm that represents nonprofits and social enterprises. During her time as an associate, Rogal focused on developing sustainable financing structures for community development and facilitated complex international transactions. She continued to practice of counsel with the firm while at Georgetown. Her current scholarship focuses on reforming executive compensation in the nonprofit sector.
Rogal was drawn to clinical teaching by her experience at Klamp & Associates. “In my practice, I really enjoyed working with clients and mentoring and orienting our summer associates and interns,” she said. “Teaching the Community Enterprise Clinic was a perfect way to blend my two interests.”
At Vanderbilt, Rogal will be affiliated with the law school’s Social Justice, Law and Business and Law and Innovation programs. “The Community Enterprise Clinic is fundamentally a transactional clinic, and students will learn a broad array of transferrable lawyering skills,” Rogal said. “Another goal is to promote inclusive economic growth by serving disadvantaged start-up entrepreneurs—for example, people who didn’t finish high school or those who have been incarcerated. Their best option to support themselves may involve starting a business, and students will provide these clients direct legal support, as well as general community education on legal topics.”
“I’m excited that Lauren Rogal is joining our clinical faculty,” said Dean Chris Guthrie. “Her Community Enterprise Clinic will expose students to every area of transactional law, enrich our Program on Law & Innovation and our Law & Business Program, and create potential trans-institutional opportunities for our students with the Owen School and the Wond’ry.”
Rogal earned her J.D. cum laude at the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a Clarence Darrow Scholar. She also holds a B.A. magna cum laude in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar, and an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where she was associate editor of Perspectives Journal of International Development.