Welcome to the Center for Law, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
UMKC’s Center for Law, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (“CLEI”) is committed to leveraging the power of law and collaborative efforts across educational disciplines, and among multiple organizations, to nurture entrepreneurs and drive innovation towards a more prosperous and equitable future.
Featured Initiatives
ELS for World Cup
In preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosted in Kansas City, the ELS Clinic will launch an initiative to help small businesses access and occupy vacant retail spaces near fan zones and event corridors.
UMKC Venture Fund
This project will design the structure and operational plan for the university’s first evergreen venture fund, focused on investing in high-growth, tech-enabled startups and promising entrepreneurial projects originating from UMKC students, faculty, and other ventures affiliated with UMKC.
EIR: Tech Transfer Policy
This project will evaluate and redesign UMKC’s intellectual property and technology transfer policies to better serve faculty inventors, student entrepreneurs, and community partners.
Submit Your Project
To submit a project for CLEI consideration, click here. You can also reach out to us by email at umkclawclei@umsystem.edu
Who we are
The CLEI is a vehicle for multidisciplinary collaborators to form and deploy teams that promote the use of entrepreneurship and innovation in providing high-quality education, addressing societal needs with a diversity of knowledge bases and perspectives, and producing thoughtful and effective solutions to generate public good. UMKC’s CLEI is led by the Law School because laws are involved in virtually all challenging endeavors and the Law School emphasizes training context-aware, creative, brave, and generous lawyers to join in teams that are instruments of positive change in communities, businesses, policy, research, and the arts. We exemplify that belief by partnering with leaders from all fields in common missions to make all of the communities we serve more prosperous.