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Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program
As AI and emerging technologies reshape the legal world, this program prepares students to lead that change. You will develop the skills and mindset to excel in today’s profession, and in the innovative legal careers of tomorrow.
About
Our mission is simple and ambitious: cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.
In an era increasingly shaped by AI, human skills—creativity, social intelligence, adaptability, resilience, and an entrepreneurial mindset grounded in opportunity-identification and dealmaking—are more essential than ever. While machines will not replace the entire legal profession, they are creating undeniable disruption. Entrepreneurship and innovation are no longer optional—they are essential pillars of legal education.
In this program, you will develop capabilities in:
- Innovation and problem-solving
- Creating social change and impact
- Leadership
- Business Development
- Risk Tolerance
- Board governance - delivered through the Board of Directors Certificate Program
The Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa is Canada’s only law school with a Director of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, led by Professor Garrick Apollon, and is widely recognized as Canada’s leading law school in entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program is anchored in the vision and leadership of Dean Kristen Boon, who has emphasized that entrepreneurship is now essential to legal education in a rapidly changing world.
Courses - Selected Topic
Enterpeneurship
CML 3129J - Garrick Apollon
Law for Start-ups
CML3129M - Doug Sarro
Becoming a Social Entrepeneur
CML3129N - Jennifer Bond
Environmental
CML3129O - Stewart Elgie
Small and Solo Practice
CML3129B - Mike Hook
Coming soon
Greening the Economy and Cleantech Investing - Leadership for Lawyers
Interested?
Fellowship Opportunities
These competitive fellowships accelerate your legal career by pairing funding with real-world experience, helping you develop the entrepreneurial mindset and practical skills demanded by today’s evolving legal profession.
Upcoming Events
Clinics & Labs
The Norton Rose Fulbright Entrepreneurship & Innovation Legal Clinic
The Norton Rose Fulbright Entrepreneurship & Innovation Legal Clinic is a national, bilingual clinical program providing early-stage Canadian entrepreneurs with practical, business-law-oriented pro bono legal services. Named after Norton Rose Fulbright, a prestigious leading national and international law firm, the Clinic is delivered in partnership with Futurpreneur, Canada’s largest startup incubator supporting young (18-39) entrepreneurs nationwide.
Under the leadership of its Founding Director, Professor Garrick Apollon, the clinic is uniquely positioned in Canada as it offers bilingual and bijural legal services. It operates in both official languages (French and English) and covers both Canadian legal traditions (common law and civil law), making it a unique national leader able to support entrepreneurs from every region of the country.
Law students work virtually under Professor Garrick Apollon’s direct supervision as supervising lawyer to assist startup clients on key business-law matters, including business formation and structuring, contract drafting, intellectual property, employment law, and legal risk management—helping founders build strong, compliant, scalable and profitable companies.
Social Entrepreneurship
This pathway is led by Professor Jennifer Bond, an internationally recognized leader in refugee protection and social-innovation design whose work has reshaped global community-sponsorship models.
Social entrepreneurship is about using legal knowledge, innovation, and mission-driven leadership to tackle society’s toughest challenges — from refugee protection and human-rights crises to access-to-justice gaps and global development issues. Instead of prioritizing profit, social entrepreneurs build organizations that deliver real, measurable public impact.
Within the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program, this pathway is perfect for law students interested in human rights, immigration and refugee law, international law, public-sector careers, non-profit leadership, or launching their own social venture. It equips you to design solutions, influence policy, and lead work that improves lives.
What you’ll gain:
- How to structure, govern, and scale high-impact organizations (non-profits, social ventures, hybrid models).
- Practical skills in funding models, partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and impact measurement.
- A clear understanding of how legal tools drive social change locally and globally.
- A pathway to become a purpose-driven lawyer — advocate, policymaker, founder, or sector leader.
Our Partners
Documentaries & the Law
The Documentaries & the Law Initiative integrates visual legal advocacy into modern legal and entrepreneurial education. Inspired by the model developed at Penn Law, the initiative uses documentary films as real-world case studies to help law students, entrepreneurs, business leaders and legal practitioners explore complex issues in corporate governance, business and legal ethics, fraud, ESG, and the social impact of ethical business decisions.
Led by Professor Garrick Apollon and delivered in partnership with CPE Studios, the initiative develops documentary-based e-learning content that is offered pro bono (free) to the public. The mission is to expand access to innovative high-quality legal education in entrepreneurship, innovation, and broader areas of practice.
What the initiative offers:
- Documentaries: Research and creation of original law-related documentaries under five minutes.
- E-learning modules: Research and development of training materials built around documentary content.
- Visual legal advocacy training: Instruction on how film can shape legal understanding, policy discussions, and public awareness, with opportunities to study documentaries as visual case studies.
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration: Bringing together film, law, business, ethics, and innovation to improve legal education and access to justice.
Flagship project for 2026:
Futurpreneur & The Laws of Starting Up:
- A new original documentary series developed through our partnership with Futurpreneur—producing short, original documentaries showcasing real entrepreneurial stories from the Futurpreneur network. These films use narrative storytelling to educate young entrepreneurs across Canada on key legal aspects of starting and growing a business, helping them strengthen their strategies and increase their chances of long-term success.
E-learning online courses built around award-winning documentaries:
- The Corporation (2003)—a film directed by Professor Joel Bakan (Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia) examining corporate power, governance, and corporate social responsibility. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MMx53V8M8s
- The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (2020)—a follow-up film directed by Professor Joel Bakan (UBC Faculty of Law) that explores modern corporate behaviour, stakeholder capitalism, and ongoing regulatory gaps. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dde4Qo0Xfno
Through this initiative, the Faculty of Law positions documentary storytelling as a powerful tool for accessible, engaging, and socially impactful legal education—supporting the next generation of responsible lawyers, entrepreneurs, and public and business leaders.