Law students at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law will get a chance to escape Chicago's blustery winters and head to the Bay Area to immerse themselves in growing startups and high-tech companies.

As part of its ongoing effort to educate law students in business and technology, Northwestern Law has partnered with the university's Kellogg School of Management to give J.D.-hopefuls a chance to spend 10 weeks from January to March at Northwestern's San Francisco satellite campus, where they will work as externs at Silicon Valley companies and take courses in law and business.

Northwestern law dean Daniel Rodriguez said the Bay Area provides opportunities for law and tech that are “specially present” and that the program allows the school to expand its footprint in the region.

Rodriguez, who is stepping down at the end of the academic year after 14 years as dean, is particularly interested in the intersection of tech and law. He'll remain part of Northwestern's full-time faculty, but he is slated to join AI-based legal research company ROSS Intelligence in an advisory role to help the company build out its law school and access to justice initiatives.

The law school is taking applications for the new program from second- and third-year students, who are likely to have a deep interest in playing inside roles with growth-stage companies, becoming entrepreneurs or joining the high-tech industry, said Northwestern law professor Emerson Tiller, who helped create the program. Enrollment in the first round of the program will be eight to 10 students because of the limited number of externships in startups, venture capital firms and high-tech companies, he said.

“That's going to open a new perspective of how an organization operates, compared to the typical summer associateship at a law firm,” Tiller said about the externships. “I'm certain they will be invited to events with other business and legal people. It gives them a chance to do personal networking.”

The integration of legal education into tech is a growing focus at law schools. Georgia State University College of Law's new Legal Analytics Lab is applying methodologies developed around big data for business applications. The Institute on Law Practice Technology and Innovation at Suffolk University Law School, has similarly designed the school's engagement around applied learning.

Northwestern law students will work between 10 and 15 hours at their externships from Mondays through Wednesdays. The rest of the week, they'll take five to six classes at Northwestern's San Francisco campus. Students will be responsible for finding their own housing. To help with higher costs of living, there will be a rental allowance of $1,850, and students can apply for additional loans.

Local lawyers will teach some of the courses, giving students a new legal perspective than they get in Chicago, Tiller said. For example, the former chief legal officer of Square Inc., which sells credit card payment devices for mobile devices, is teaching a class on competition policy. A course about legal aspects of venture deals features a teaching team including a longtime venture-transaction attorney and an experienced venture capitalist.

For other classes, Chicago-based law and business professors will travel to San Francisco and also video conference from Chicago. Tiller noted that it's normally hard for law students to gain entry into MBA-level business classes from Kellogg, but the immersion program will open the doors to classes about entrepreneurship, launching and leading startups, and social dynamics and network analytics.

This isn't the first time the law school partnered with the Kellogg school on legal and business programming. The pair also offers a joint JD-MBA program, and provide business core classes exclusively for law students.

“We are excited about developing a collaborative curriculum in law and business that is especially well-suited to the kinds of challenges and opportunities that are entirely unique to the Bay Area,” Rodriguez said. “Curriculum and opportunities for our students to prosper at the intersection of law, business and technology, we think, is vitally important in this dynamic new world.”

Follow Angela Morris on Twitter at @AMorrisReports

Law students at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law will get a chance to escape Chicago's blustery winters and head to the Bay Area to immerse themselves in growing startups and high-tech companies.

As part of its ongoing effort to educate law students in business and technology, Northwestern Law has partnered with the university's Kellogg School of Management to give J.D.-hopefuls a chance to spend 10 weeks from January to March at Northwestern's San Francisco satellite campus, where they will work as externs at Silicon Valley companies and take courses in law and business.

Northwestern law dean Daniel Rodriguez said the Bay Area provides opportunities for law and tech that are “specially present” and that the program allows the school to expand its footprint in the region.

Rodriguez, who is stepping down at the end of the academic year after 14 years as dean, is particularly interested in the intersection of tech and law. He'll remain part of Northwestern's full-time faculty, but he is slated to join AI-based legal research company ROSS Intelligence in an advisory role to help the company build out its law school and access to justice initiatives.

The law school is taking applications for the new program from second- and third-year students, who are likely to have a deep interest in playing inside roles with growth-stage companies, becoming entrepreneurs or joining the high-tech industry, said Northwestern law professor Emerson Tiller, who helped create the program. Enrollment in the first round of the program will be eight to 10 students because of the limited number of externships in startups, venture capital firms and high-tech companies, he said.

“That's going to open a new perspective of how an organization operates, compared to the typical summer associateship at a law firm,” Tiller said about the externships. “I'm certain they will be invited to events with other business and legal people. It gives them a chance to do personal networking.”

The integration of legal education into tech is a growing focus at law schools. Georgia State University College of Law's new Legal Analytics Lab is applying methodologies developed around big data for business applications. The Institute on Law Practice Technology and Innovation at Suffolk University Law School, has similarly designed the school's engagement around applied learning.

Northwestern law students will work between 10 and 15 hours at their externships from Mondays through Wednesdays. The rest of the week, they'll take five to six classes at Northwestern's San Francisco campus. Students will be responsible for finding their own housing. To help with higher costs of living, there will be a rental allowance of $1,850, and students can apply for additional loans.

Local lawyers will teach some of the courses, giving students a new legal perspective than they get in Chicago, Tiller said. For example, the former chief legal officer of Square Inc., which sells credit card payment devices for mobile devices, is teaching a class on competition policy. A course about legal aspects of venture deals features a teaching team including a longtime venture-transaction attorney and an experienced venture capitalist.

For other classes, Chicago-based law and business professors will travel to San Francisco and also video conference from Chicago. Tiller noted that it's normally hard for law students to gain entry into MBA-level business classes from Kellogg, but the immersion program will open the doors to classes about entrepreneurship, launching and leading startups, and social dynamics and network analytics.

This isn't the first time the law school partnered with the Kellogg school on legal and business programming. The pair also offers a joint JD-MBA program, and provide business core classes exclusively for law students.

“We are excited about developing a collaborative curriculum in law and business that is especially well-suited to the kinds of challenges and opportunities that are entirely unique to the Bay Area,” Rodriguez said. “Curriculum and opportunities for our students to prosper at the intersection of law, business and technology, we think, is vitally important in this dynamic new world.”

Follow Angela Morris on Twitter at @AMorrisReports