Students at the University of Colorado Law School will rub elbows with entrepreneurs from around the globe next year. The school's Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship next fall will launch a pilot Entrepreneurs in Residence program, bringing in as many as four business leaders from the United States and beyond to spend between one and three years to pursue their ventures and help students learn the startup process.

Colorado is the first law school to host resident entrepreneurs, according to Dean Philip Weiser. “We want our students to have an entrepreneurial mindset and toolkit,” he says. “Law students today need to own their careers. They need to be entrepreneurs in themselves. The old idea that a law firm will hire you and train you is gone. It's not feasible for most students anymore.”

He aims to impress upon students that entrepreneurship encompasses far more than the technology startups that dominate the news cycle. Practitioners in criminal law, health law or other practice areas also have opportunities to innovate, he notes.