Sharpening student negotiation skills

From November to March, Wayne State University Law School students sharpened their negotiation skills through two major events: the 10th Annual Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Competition and the 2024 Wayne State Taft Invitational. These competitions, held at the Southfield offices of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, offered students invaluable opportunities to develop legal skills in a real-world setting.

Thirty-eight Wayne Law students participated in the Taft Transactional Law Competition in November 2023. This innovative, live-round competition is part of a one-credit course created and supervised by Wayne Law Professor Eric Zacks. The competition helps students develop drafting, negotiating, and counseling skills, with two-member teams representing a buyer and seller involved in a complex acquisition.

Wayne Law’s Moot Court program concluded its second Peter Henning Moot Court Competition Oct. 29, 2023. Each year, junior members of Moot Court extensively research legal issues in unsettled areas of the law. Of the 32 junior members who participated in this two-day competition, eight oralists—Francis (Frank) Doud, Shane Werner, Jessica Krawczyk, Melodie Floro, Nana Berko, Matthew Olgren, Natalia Grasso, and Hannah Hollin—advanced beyond the preliminary rounds. 2L Krawczyk prevailed as the Fall 2023 In-House champion.

This year’s winners were:

• First Place Negotiations (seller’s counsel)
  Lena Vushaj and Lydia Dunn
• First Place Negotiations (buyer’s counsel)
  Erli Metko and Christian Sarafa
• First Place Drafting (seller’s counsel)
  Alyssa Bellini and Kyle Johnson
• First Place Drafting (buyer’s counsel)
  Kellan Lee, Chelsea Smith, and Pandora Pando

In March 2024, coordinated by Professor Zacks and Taft attorney and Wayne Law alumnus Justin Hanna, twenty-two law schools from across the country gathered to compete in the 2024 Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Invitational.

Third-year Wayne Law students Ameera Hashwi, Camran Astani, Connor Schram and Danny Harwood served as chairpersons for the competition. The Taft Transactional Law Competition Fund, established in 2018, continues to help support the program.

“Taft is proud to be a supporter of this critically important practical educational program for law students throughout the country interested in transactional law,” Justin Hanna said. “Since its inception as a locally centered program for Wayne Law students, the Wayne State Taft Invitational has flourished.”

“It includes teams from regionally and nationally recognized law schools throughout the country. This practice-based learning approach with respect to business transaction negotiation and documentation helps put the participants leaps and bounds ahead of their peers as prospective lawyers. The expanded national program is a tribute to the success of Professor Zacks’ vision and the execution by the Wayne Law student chairs hosting the event,” said Hanna.

Zacks added, “We were pleased to see so many schools participate. Taft has been a wonderful partner for, and supporter of, this program, and we are grateful to them. As always, the most valuable part of the competition was the student feedback sessions with the judges. We are appreciative of all the attorneys that donated their time to serve as judges.”

Both the November competition and the March invitational showcase the effort to equip Wayne Law students with practical skills, demonstrating the value of hands-on learning and the commitment of Wayne Law and Taft to fostering future legal professionals.

For the full list of participating schools and students, as well as the attorneys acting as judges, visit the News page at law.wayne.edu/news.