Wayne Law transactional teams place 2nd, 3rd in drafting competition

Two Wayne State University Law School transactional law teams competed in the regional National Transactional LawMeet, placing 2nd and 3rd for drafting.

The team of second-year students Arthur Dore of Royal Oak and Nezar Habhab of Dearborn Heights took second place in drafting and fifth place overall (drafting and negotiations) during the Feb. 24 contest hosted by Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

The team of third-year students Megan Baxter-Labut of Grosse Pointe Farms and Jonathan Demers of Detroit competed Feb. 24 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and took home third place in drafting and third place overall (drafting and negotiations).

The teams were aided by third-year student Amy Huang of Farmington Hills, second-year students Nhan Ho of Detroit, Alana Karbal of Birmingham, Jeffrey Schultz of Farmington Hills and Bridget Vance of Farmington Hills. These students assisted with the drafting and by conducting practice negotiation rounds.

Third-year student Gabe Appel of Ferndale, served as chairman for the teams. Team advisor is Associate Professor Eric Zacks of Huntington Woods.

“This process provides a close look at the real-world deal process and helps equip the participants with the practical skills needed to be successful in transactional practice,” Appel said. “We are very proud of our teams and all that they have accomplished.”

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.

Team members were selected based on winning the Wayne Law transactional competition held last fall in which 26 students participated.