Wayne Law transactional team places 1st in drafting at regionals

A Wayne State University Law School transactional law team, for the third year in a row, won first place in drafting at a regional competition of the National Transactional LawMeet competition. The team of second-year student Alex Bowman of Detroit and third-year student Arius Webb of Harper Woods took first place in drafting, representing the seller, and fourth place overall (drafting and negotiations) during the Feb. 27 contest hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Wayne Law's team of Whitney Baubie and Emily Decker, both second-year students from Grosse Pointe, competed in the Chicago Regional and took home third place in drafting and fourth place overall. The teams were aided by second-year students Robert Clemente of West Bloomfield and Ian Hickman of Royal Oak, both of whom assisted with the drafting and by conducting practice negotiation rounds. Wayne Law has been involved in the competition for three years, and during that time, has taken four first-place honors (2013 first in drafting, 2014 first in drafting and first in negotiations, 2015 first in drafting). Justin Hanna of West Bloomfield, a third-year student who was part of last year's team that won its regional competition, served as chairman for this year's teams, which are advised by Assistant Professor Eric Zacks of Huntington Woods. "I am very proud of both teams," Zacks said. "Wayne Law students have demonstrated an aptitude and enthusiasm for practical business law course offerings, and I am thrilled that the intramural transactional competition course as well as our participation and performance in the regional LawMeets have been successful. The credit really belongs to our students. They are expected to complete the assignments much as a junior attorney would, learning by doing and hopefully developing a good business sense along the way." Said Hanna: "Having competed in the Transactional LawMeets competition last year, I understand firsthand what a wonderful and unique opportunity it is to develop a practical understanding of how (mergers and acquisitions) deals are done. I have had the pleasure of watching as the teams have developed and honed their skills in both drafting and negotiating, and I am confident that these students will be much better equipped to practice transactional law than most other law students." For the competition, the teams represented a seller in a complicated sale transaction, which involved drafting particular sections of a purchase agreement, marking up the opposition counsel's draft and conducting live negotiations with opposing counsel. The teams spend hundreds of hours working on their agreements, participating in client conference calls and preparing for the live negotiations. The transactional law teams are part of Wayne Law's Program for Entrepreneurship and Business Law, directed by Assistant (Clinical) Professor Eric Williams. Team members were selected based on their finish in an intramural Wayne Law transactional competition held in the fall in which 32 students participated. Published: Thu, Mar 19, 2015