Lynnise Elizabeth Pantin

Lynnise Pantin ’03 is the founding director of the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic. Students in the clinic develop lawyering skills as they provide legal services in a range of transactional, intellectual property, and governance matters to community organizations and low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs.

Pantin’s pedagogy is informed by her scholarship focusing on the systemic socioeconomic barriers faced by entrepreneurs of color and those of modest means. Her recent journal articles include “The Economic Justice Imperative for Transactional Law Clinics” in the Villanova Law Review and “The Wealth Gap and the Racial Disparities in the Startup Ecosystem.”

Pantin joined the full-time Columbia Law faculty in 2019, after a year as a visiting professor when she inaugurated her clinic. Previously, she was the founder and director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clinic at Boston College Law School and the co-founding director of the Transactional Law Clinic at New York Law School, where she taught Legal Practice and directed the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law.

Pantin began her career as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, practicing corporate and securities law in the investment management group within the firm’s corporate department. She advised private investment funds, their sponsors, and investors in all matters related to the formation and operation of domestic and international funds. She also provided pro bono services to nonprofit organizations and small businesses on business transactions, formation issues and governance, and regulatory compliance. Before becoming a lawyer, Pantin was an elementary school teacher in Washington, D.C.