On March 22, 2017, business people, lawyers, and law students joined the Mitchell Hamline Law Review for its symposium entitled “Lawyers as Business Leaders: The Unique Skills, Knowledge, and Perspective of a Legal Education” at Able Seedhouse + Brewery in Minneapolis. The symposium explored the intersection of law and business through panels and presentations, as well as the articles contained in this issue, written before the March 2017 event. The symposium specifically explored how lawyers are, or could be, well-equipped to lead successful business careers, whether in practicing business law, working as in-house counsel, or managing employees in executive-level roles within companies. A major theme recurring in these articles and discussed at the symposium event is that law schools play an important role in providing students the tools they need to thrive in the business world. With proper training in business and law, lawyers can transform a legal hurdle into a business opportunity.
The symposium tried to answer the following questions: How can business attorneys help companies accomplish their business goals? How can attorneys succeed as entrepreneurs? How can attorneys add value as in-house counsel? How can lawyers create new opportunities for businesses through legislation? And finally, how can law schools better prepare students to be business leaders? The authors of the articles in this issue dive into concrete examples of some answers to these questions. The panels at the symposium, each of which included one of the authors, presented broader discussions of the above questions.