Courtesy of Nike
Law students at Lewis & Clark recently gained access to collaboration opportunities with corporate attorneys at Nike through a partnership aimed at expanding support for Oregon small businesses.
The collaboration pairs attorneys from Nike’s legal department with students in the law school’s Small Business Legal Clinic (SBLC), where interns already provide free legal services to entrepreneurs. Through the program, students receive mentorship while working on client matters ranging from business formation to contract drafting and trademark registration.
The SBLC operates as an experiential learning course in which students work directly with business owners to provide what director and LC Professor of Law Susan Felstiner describes as “preventative lawyering.” Rather than handling litigation, she said, the clinic focuses on helping clients stay out of trouble and manage risk.
The initiative expands the clinic’s capacity at a time when demand for affordable legal services remains high. According to the law school, many of the SBLC’s clients are first-time business owners who would otherwise struggle to afford legal assistance, particularly women and minority-owned enterprises.
Students take on significant responsibility in the clinic, working with clients from the beginning of a legal matter through its conclusion.
This allows students to experiment with different approaches to client service and legal problem-solving. For student Madison Fahlman-Katler 2L, that work included tasks like drafting liability waivers for a nonprofit client.
“With waivers, the contract has to be a balance between being protective and something that an individual actually wants to sign,” Fahlman-Katler said in an interview with The Mossy Log. “That balance is hard to do.”
Other students described similar benefits from the mentorship.
“Having a dedicated mentor has given me both confidence and direction,” said Bahar Tarighi 3L in a post written for the law school website.
The partnership itself emerged through connections between the law school and Nike’s legal team, eventually taking shape as a mentorship model.
“We developed this one-on-one mentorship partnership where each student was paired with a Nike attorney,” Felstiner said.
Existing connections with Nike’s legal team helped establish the program. According to Felstiner, Jay Eckhardt, Nike’s North American marketplace senior counsel, who serves on the law school’s business law advisory board, helped initiate the collaboration as part of a broader interest in engaging with law students and supporting experiential learning. He worked with the clinic to develop the program’s one-on-one mentorship structure, pairing students with Nike attorneys to discuss client work and career development. The Mossy Log contacted Eckhardt but he was not available for comment.
Participants work together on active client matters, with attorneys advising on strategy, reviewing documents and offering feedback on client communication. Through those interactions, students gain an additional layer of perspective beyond faculty instruction.
“Jay and I discussed why certain changes were needed and added value to the contract, and why some provisions weren’t helpful,” Fahlman-Katler said. “
For Flestiner, that additional feedback is a central goal of the partnership.
“They got a different perspective … which is very enriching for the students and for the clients,” Felstiner said.
According to Flestiner, that collaborative approach can strengthen the quality of the work itself.
“Legal work can be very collaborative. When more people are working on a project together … you might end up with a better work product,” she said.
The partnership launched in Fall 2025 with a small cohort of attorneys and students, many of whom meet regularly with their mentors to discuss both client work and career development. Over time, those relationships may extend beyond the classroom. Felstiner noted that some students have continued to stay in touch with their mentors and expand their professional networks.
“Being a lawyer is a lot about relationships,” Felstiner said.
At the same time, the mentorship often happens behind the scenes.
“Clients might not really know that there’s another attorney working,” Felstiner said.
Felstiner underscored that the program primarily shapes the guidance students provide rather than directly altering the client experience. The Nike lawyers are not doing the legal work of the small businesses; rather, they offer guidance to students in the clinic, who then act as the leads on work with clients.
Programs like this are relatively uncommon in legal education, where experiential learning is often limited to faculty supervision or nonprofit work. The involvement of a major corporate legal department introduces a new dimension, blending public-interest work with private-sector expertise.
In a statement previously shared by the law school, Caitlin Bellum, Nike’s senior assistant general counsel for Asia Pacific & Latin America described the program as: “(helping) bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world practice.”
Additional students and program participants echoed similar experiences in statements shared by the law school.
The partnership represents an effort to bridge the gap between classroom learning and professional practice, while directing additional legal resources toward Oregon’s small business community.
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