Esther S. Barron

Clinical Professor of Law
Director, Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center

Biography

Esther Barron is a Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center. In the clinical program, she works with students to represent start-ups, more mature companies and social entrepreneurs in a variety of transactional matters. In addition to her clinical work with the DPELC, her other courses include Entrepreneurship Law, NUvention- Medical Innovation, Venture Capital and Business Associations. She also co-taught a massive open on line course on entrepreneurship law.

Previously, Barron practiced at Goldberg Kohn in Chicago in its commercial finance department, representing lenders and other financial institutions in middle market debt transactions. In 2004, she co-founded a handbag company, Elezar, LLC. She also serves on the board of directors for the Coleman Foundation.

Barron is the coauthor of the legal casebook Entrepreneurship Law. She has received a Dean’s Teaching Award, the SBA Faculty Appreciation Award and the Association of American Law Schools Teachers of the Year Award.

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Areas of Expertise

  • Entrepreneurship
  • Business Associations
  • Clinical Teaching

Courses

Selected Publications

  • Accidental Founders: The Race from Class Project to Start-Up, 25 Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance 86 (2020) (with Darren Green).
  • A Closer Look at Distance Learning: The Law and the Entrepreneur MOOC, 19 Lewis & Clark Law Review 395 (2015) (with Stephen F. Reed).
  • Experiencing Business Associations in the Classroom, 59 Saint Louis University Law Journal 787 (2015).
  • Entrepreneurship Law: Cases and Materials (Wolters Kluwer 2013) (with Stephen F. Reed).

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Education

  • BA, Brandeis University
  • JD, Northwestern University

Prior Appointments

  • Harry B. Reese Teaching Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Clinical Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Hochberg Family Director, Small Business Opportunity Center, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Associate, Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz
  • Associate, Peterson & Ross

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