Temple Law School has long been known for its trial advocacy programs. What some may not know is that its transactional programs are growing fast, and provide students with innovative hands-on opportunities to develop competitive business transactional skills, such as negotiating and drafting corporate documents
During my 3L year, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in transactional law at Temple. In the fall, I registered for a new course—Negotiating and Drafting Corporate Transactions— taught by Professors Ed Ellers and Jonathan Lipson. In the spring, I was chosen to participate on Temple’s LawMeets Transactional Team, coached by Professors Ellers and Lipson.
In the Negotiating and Drafting course, I worked closely with my co-counsel, Pat Bianchi (LAW ’14), other classmates, and the professors on a simulated asset purchase transaction. The course included assignments such as an engagement letter, a nondisclosure agreement, a letter of intent, and the final asset purchase agreement. Throughout the semester, we learned the ins and outs of each part of the deal. We learned not only how to draft these agreements, but also how to prepare and negotiate the documents.
Professors Ellers and Lipson taught us that coming to a deal isn’t just about winning or losing— it’s about understanding, and developing persuasive rationales for, your client’s needs. Effective negotiating facilitates an organic give and take amongst counsel, which then helps parties secure deals in their best interests. Although we learned that transactional practice involves competition among the parties, it also requires cooperation in order to make the deal work.
Based on our work in this course, Pat Bianchi, Chip More (LAW ’14), Rich Barzaga (LAW ’15), and I were selected to represent Temple in a nationwide transactional skills competition. This is much like a “moot court,” but for developing deal lawyers. This year, it involved drafting and negotiating an indemnification agreement. Each team prepared for negotiations by drafting the agreement and marking up revisions made by opposing teams.
After drafts and comments were exchanged, Pat and I had the opportunity to spend the day in New York, and Chip and Rich in Chicago, negotiating with (and against) teams from other law schools to reach a deal on behalf of our clients. We received constructive feedback while being judged by firm attorneys and in-house counsel. This feedback was invaluable and gave us an unbiased opinion on both our strengths and weaknesses.
These experiences helped me develop skills and insights that will better enable me to compete in the marketplace for legal services.
While transactional lawyers do not compete in the same ways that trial lawyers do, I learned that both types of practice share important foundational skills, including the ability to identify appropriate goals for a client and to develop and implement strategies and tactics that advance the client’s interests, in particular through reasoned, persuasive argumentation. While I don’t plan to try many cases, my experience in Temple’s business law program prepared me well to “try the deal.”