October 10, 2024
Every September, within the hallowed trial advocacy halls of Temple Law, over 150 first-year students participate in a 3-week simulation course designed to showcase the art of interviewing a client, negotiating contracts, drafting documents, and more. The now-teenaged Introduction to Transactional Skills (“ITS”) course is a 1-credit mainstay in the fall 1L curriculum. Students have the chance to learn, but more importantly, the chance to do and the chance to connect.
Thirteen years ago, former Temple Law professors Eleanor Myers, David Hoffman, and Ed Ellers created ITS to bridge the gap between legal education and the legal workforce—and to start as early as possible. Students are split into two groups: one half represents an entrepreneur, Carly Whitman, interested in financing a new restaurant; the other half represents an up-and-coming chef, Emeril Starr, who wants to take his talents to new heights. In small sections, students learn from their professors about transactional topics, are paired up to interview their teaching-assistant-turned-client, and finally negotiate and draft basic deal documents with their counterparts in groups of four.
During the third week, each group’s final negotiation session is judged live by a Temple Law alum or two. This year, 64 Temple Law alumni and friends returned to campus to judge the final negotiations. At the conclusion of these three weeks, each small section identifies one pair of students that most embodied critical skills that ITS seeks to highlight. These include professionalism, preparedness, attention to detail, integrity, and character. This year’s students, recipients of the “ITS/Kohn Prize,” were honored on Wednesday, October 9 at a reception sponsored by Professor (and holder of the Harold E. Kohn Chair) Jonathan Lipson.
Over the last three years, I have had the opportunity to participate in ITS as a student and a teaching assistant, playing the roles of both Carly and Emeril—embodying their needs, wants, and attitudes in a way that arguably gives method actors a run for their money. As a 1L returning to school after several years in the workforce, ITS was a welcome learning opportunity: how did my existing skills fit into the legal profession? How might I apply what I learn in school to what I hope to do when I graduate?
Being a teaching assistant for ITS feels different than a doctrinal course—almost akin to that of a peer mentor. Emma Meister (LAW ’25), one of this year’s teaching assistants, lauds ITS as “an incredible way to build confidence in the first month of law school. Students are encouraged to find their own negotiation style and get creative in finding solutions. It is ultimately all about working well with your partner and your ‘opposition.’ If nothing else, students should leave ITS with an understanding of the importance of collegiality.” Our role as teaching assistants is to equip students with tools that they can take outside of ITS, into their classrooms and the workplace.
The Temple Law community, already tight-knit, helps build connections for 1L students. In addition to exposing students to real-world skills, the small sections help facilitate a miniature network from which the students can build. Around Philadelphia, recent Temple Law alumni often ask about the ITS experience and recount their own. I was even interviewed once, serendipitously, by the same person who judged my final round negotiation. Our short interaction months prior became a friendly point of conversation and connection between two Temple Owls.
This year, 189 first-year students participated in the course, 18 faculty taught small sections, and 18 upper-level students served as teaching assistants. ITS runs like a well-oiled machine, thanks to the dedication of many, including the tremendous efforts of faculty coordinator Professor Andrea Monroe, Dean Shyam Nair, John Beene, and Allison Healy.
The 2024 winners of the ITS/Kohn prize are: Rownoka Ashakhan, Nolan Barr, Nicholas Breznak, Ted Cahill, Mya Caldwell, Nywel Cheaye, Chyng-Shan Chiu, Lucy Crawford, Kelly Rose Gavenus, Sarah Ismael, Kenny Jannarone, Gai Kaufman Glisko, Robert Kinnaird, Manny Kramer, Gabrielle Lemonier, Elizabeth McClafferty, Avi Meisels, Grace Myers, Lam Nguyen, Daniel Pantini, Lucas Partridge, George Persin, Kennedy Reardon, Dylan Reynolds, Charlie Rivera, Miles Robinson, Alex Rowland, Batool Salloum, Ilana Sanchez, Annie Sholar, Jack Tubiello, Emily Valadez, Ke’Nia Washington, Emily Zhang, and Simon Zhu.
Tithi Patel (LAW ’25) is a Senior Student Editor for the Temple 10-Q