W&L Law Team Wins Best Draft Award at Transactional Lawyering Competition
Washington and Lee University law students Steve Harper and Lauren Meehan earned the Best Draft award for the term sheet they prepared for the regional Transactional LawMeet, held Feb. 17 at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Now in its third year, the Transactional LawMeet was created to give students an opportunity to compete against other schools in the realm of “deal making.” While there are many opportunities for law students to test their trial and appellate advocacy skills, few opportunities exist for students interested in transactional law practice.
Although the Meet’s specific agreement and transaction vary from year to year, each Meet’s agreement presents essential challenges in transactional problem solving, the type that corporate departments at law firms or in-house counsel at corporations tackle on a daily basis. The competition is judged by panels of senior deal lawyers.
For this year’s competition, Harper and Meehan used information provided and email interviews conducted prior to the competition to prepare an executive compensation package proposal on behalf of their client, a top executive being recruited by another company. The W&L students then represented their client in negotiations with students from other schools representing the company trying to lure her away.
Harper and Meehan received top honors for submitting the best draft term sheet in the regional competition, which featured teams from the law schools at Emory, the University of Virginia, Drexel, William and Mary, and American University, among others. With the award comes the opportunity to compete at the National Competition, to be held March 29 and 30 at Drexel University.
Recognizing the need for more transactional training for law students, W&L Law put substantial focus on helping students develop deal making skills when it reformed its third-year curriculum. In addition to choosing from an array of rigorous practice simulations that expose students to planning, negotiating, and document drafting in connection with business transactions, all W&L law students participate in a two-week transaction skills immersion, during which they handle a simulated purchase and sale of a business, representing either the buyer or seller at each stage of the transaction.
To learn more about W&L Law’s innovative third-year curriculum, visit law.wlu.edu/thirdyear.
News Contact:
Peter Jetton
School of Law Director of Communications
(540) 458-8782
