Transactional Skills: How to Structure and Document a Deal (Coursebook)

Co-published by West Academic Publishing and the ABA, this coursebook, designed to be used in law schools and large law firms with associate training programs, focuses on documenting agreements in a variety of topical legal areas such as real estate, merger and acquisitions, finance and securities. Intended to be taught to students or new associates by utilizing problems to teach them acquisition of transactional lawyering skills, an extensive corresponding Teacher’s Manual that includes a detailed response to each problem and guidance on teaching each of the simulations is available. Through carefully designed problems and exercises, the first part of the book helps students understand and strategically use the different types of contract terms, translate deal terms to precise contract language, use forms appropriately, and spot and resolve ambiguity. Students also practice deal design, due diligence, and negotiating contract language. The second part of the book consists of four simulated commercial transactions, each of which consists of several parts. In each simulation, students further develop their transactional lawyering skills by structuring, negotiating, and documenting a deal on behalf of a one of the parties to the transaction.