Successful transactional lawyers build their practices by adding value to their clients' transactions. In addition to having strong drafting and negotiation skills, they think creatively and strategically, more like skilled chess players than technicians. They are also effective, diplomatic communicators. This seminar teaches students how, as transactional lawyers, they can bring added value to a deal. Through role plays, simulations, in- class exercises and written assignments, students learn strategies for translating the concepts of a business transaction into legal documents. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the client's business and strategic objectives for a deal; identifying the risk and value issues that the client has not yet considered; structuring the deal; and negotiating and drafting the deal documents to achieve the client's goals. Note: Although strategic contract drafting is an element of the course, this is not a class dedicated to contract drafting. Instead, the focus is on how the various provisions of deal documents interact with each other to further a client's business objectives, and on how to work strategically to structure, negotiate, and draft the provisions to achieve those objectives. This class is open to foreign-trained LLM students in the LLM in American Law and Intellectual Property Law Programs. Prerequisites: contracts, unless otherwise waived by the instructor. Enrollment limited to 12 students.

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