This course helps students develop foundational transactional skills by learning the terms and concepts for the component parts of contracts, how to read a written to agreement to determine precisely what the parties have agreed to – and where they have left ambiguities – as well as how to draft agreements themselves by editing a template to match its terms to a negotiated agreement Students work in teams in the role of debtor and lender’s counsel to negotiate and draft the documents in a financed transaction, including a Promissory Note, Security Agreement, Financing Statement, and client memo.  Each assignment feedback on the basics of contract drafting compliance with legal doctrine, and practical considerations.  Student-created portfolios provide a writing sample for employers that seek familiarity with a common business transaction, the contract concepts it implicates, and how to reduce agreed-upon terms to words on the page.

Pre-requisites: Commercial Law: Secured Transactions (must be taken concurrently with Prof. Ertman’s course).