In a city where corporate headquarters, financial institutions and global law firms operate side by side, business law is not an abstract subject. At DePaul Law, Chicago itself functions as an extended classroom for students in the Program of Excellence (POE) in Business Law, shaping how they learn transactional practice, regulatory frameworks, and the strategic realities that define modern business lawyering. 

Located in the heart of downtown, the POE in Business Law is structured to take advantage of Chicago’s depth and diversity as a major legal and business center. Classroom study is reinforced through experiential opportunities, including the Business Law Clinic and a wide range of externships with government agencies, law firms and businesses, allowing students to engage directly with the legal issues that arise in active commercial settings. 

Students also can earn a Certificate in Business Law alongside the general JD curriculum or pursue a joint JD/MBA with the business school, located next door to the College of Law. Additional joint degree options include the JD/LLM in International Law, concentrating in Business, Commercial & Trade Law, or the or JD/Master in International and European Business Law offered in Madrid, Spain.  

Co-curricular offerings also are an established part of the Business Law POE. Students can participate in the DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal  and the student-run Business Law Society, which provide opportunities for engagement with business law scholarship, practitioner speakers and programming related to transactional and corporate practice. 

For Niko Anaya (’27), co-president of the Business Law Society and a Certificate in Business Law candidate, those opportunities translated directly into practice. Anaya credits his involvement in the Business Law POE with helping him secure a summer associate position in the corporate group at Kirkland & Ellis, where he participated in mock negotiations and worked on drafting Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including Form 8-Ks, as well as limited partnership and asset purchase agreements. 

Cecilia Fleischer (’27) similarly points to the program’s integration of doctrine and practice as a defining feature. Through coursework and an externship at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP, she gained a clearer understanding of how business law operates beyond casebooks. As Fleischer explains, DePaul Law faculty “not only teach the law, but link cases and concepts to real and current business issues, explain how cases move through proceedings and show the impact of outcomes on clients and stakeholders.” In practice, Fleischer observed how business law “principles play out in active matters, and how strategy, procedure and business realities shape legal decision-making every day.” 

The Business Law Clinic, founded by Professor Julie Lawton and directed by Steven Wiser, serves as the program’s in-house transactional clinic and anchors its experiential focus. Clinic students provide legal counsel to corporations and small businesses, working through the full lifecycle of transactional matters. Muskan Dhatt (’27) describes the clinic as instrumental in developing her legal skills. “By providing a holistic view of transactional work, the clinic allowed me to better understand how law intersects with business,” she says, adding that applying classroom concepts to real clients has made the experience “especially fulfilling.” One clinic assignment required Dhatt and her partner to draft a contract for a snow plowing company, an exercise that mirrored real-world transactional work. The project involved interviewing the client about business goals, identifying potential liabilities, addressing prior contractual issues, clarifying ambiguous terms and evaluating the agreement from a litigation perspective to anticipate future disputes. 

Taken together, these experiences extend beyond traditional coursework to shape students’ professional identities. Reflecting on her clinic experience, Dhatt says it allowed her to “cultivate my own approach to client interactions and management, present myself professionally, yet authentically, and build meaningful relationships.” Fleischer also points to the program’s professional network, noting that it enabled her to “forge connections with faculty, alumni and practitioners who have supported my professional devlopment and confirmed the kind of work I want to pursue.”  

Joshua Moran (’27), a student research assistant with the program, describes a consistent message clinic participants receive: “We always remind students that they’re not alone in this journey. DePaul Law professors, faculty and staff are in their corner every step of the way, giving them the tools they need to succeed and begin their legal career with confidence.”