Invitational competition

About

The Invitational provides students with the opportunity to develop drafting, negotiating, and counseling skills, with teams representing either the buyer or seller in a complex acquisition. Throughout the winter semester, one to two teams from different schools will focus on drafting and revising a transactional agreement as well as completing a mark-up of opposing counsel's draft. Finally, the teams from each law school will come together to participate in a day of live negotiations. Each team will compete in two rounds of negotiations. A group of Metro Detroit M&A attorneys will judge both the drafts and the negotiation sessions. Following each negotiation session, the judges will provide each team with individualized feedback and determine which teams represented their clients the most effectively based on various guidelines.

2023 Competitors

  • KU Law
  • Brooklyn Law School
  • University of Colorado
  • LSU Law
  • Washburn University School of Law
  • Georgetown University Law Center
  • Widener University Commonwealth Law School
  • University of Mississippi
  • SMU Dedman School of Law
  • University of Tennessee Knoxville
  • William & Mary Law School
  • Charleston School of Law
  • Depaul University Law School
  • University of Wisconsin Law School 
  • University of San Diego School of Law
  • Baylor Law School
  • MSU Law
  • Albany Law School
  • Wayne Law

2024 Invitational 

If you believe your school would be interested, please reach out to the student chairpersons or Prof. Zacks (ezacks@wayne.edu), or complete the registration form below. Student chairpersons for the 2023-24 school year are Connor Schram (connor.schram@wayne.edu), Daniel Harwood (dharwood@wayne.edu), Ameera Hashwi (ameera.hashwi@wayne.edu), and Camran Astani (castani@wayne.edu).

For teams registered to compete in the regional Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Invitational, the tentative problem release is the middle of January. The competition will take place March 22nd, 2024.

Generally, the competition is hosted in Southfield, Michigan, at the offices of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, our competition sponsor. We will provide updates on the logistics of the competition periodically to ensure teams from outside of the Metro Detroit area have sufficient time to coordinate travel.

Sign-up

If your school is interested in competing in the Invitational, please submit this sign-up form and a student chairperson will be in touch. Submitting this form indicates you are applying for a spot in the competition, not that a spot is guaranteed.

Fields with asterisks (*) are required.

What university/college are you from?

Faculty advisor contact information

Student competitor contact information

If unknown at the moment, please write "TBD"