Law-Meets-Science: a multi-disciplinary advice simulation

In the newly opened Playground, at Utrecht University, students from various Law master's programmes recently practiced giving legal advice to other master students that had ideas for start-ups in life sciences and technology. It was the third time that this annual "Law Meets Science" event was organised. 

Participants praised the simulation as 'very engaging', with the law students practicing their advisory skills and science students gaining valuable legal input. The event centers on real projects, providing a safe space for students as both parties are allowed to make mistakes.

Anne van Ewijk, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship (at the Utrecht University School of Economics) teaches Science-Based Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Science and is the organiser of this annual event. I'm very happy with how it turned out, this 3rd year around. Both parties, the law students and the sience-based entrepreneurship students, clearly benefitted from and enjoyed the event. Law Meets Science is a safe space to develop skills beyond traditional study, such as communicating with clients and working in a team of lawyers, all under the supervision of skilled professors. I hope this inspires more multi-disciplinary educational collaborations between faculties.

I hope this inspires more multi-disciplinary educational collaborations between faculties.

Participants and experiences

This year the participants were 52 students from the master's programme Science & Business Management and fourteen students from the School of Law. They came from various programmes such as Law & Technology in Europe, Intellectueel eigendomsrecht, innovatie en technologie, Law & Economics and the Legal Research master. Anne van Ewijk, Han Gulyás, Esther van Schagen and Bald de Vries facilitated and mentored the students

After the event, the law students shared their positive experiences in a so-called 'hot debrief'. "Clients often do not have everything thought out, and they learned through discussion. While it would also be satisfactory to advise on ideas that are further advanced, this did mean that we could help prevent potentially costly mistakes. As legal advisors, we can really act as moral gatekeepers, by outlining the ethical considerations underlying the law"

Some pratical learnings from the event, that law students reported, were for instance:

• Soften the blow of bad news, by introducing the reasoning behind it
• Refraining judgment of the start-up idea itself, but help develop it in conversation instead
• Identify motivations, finding out 'why’

Anne van Ewijk hopes to further develop this annual activity and is looking for ways to further embed it into the regular law curriculum, which would save the time-consuming effort of recruiting students.