Second Edition of Wayne Law Professor Eric A. Zacks' Contracts Casebook Published
A second edition of Contracts in Context: From Transaction to Litigation—the casebook by Wayne Law Professor Eric A. Zacks and his co-author Professor Nadelle Grossman— has been published by Aspen Press.
Contracts in Context: From Transaction to Litigation explores why parties enter into contracts, how written contracts are customarily structured, and how and why parties use contract design and terms to achieve their goals. The book is unique because it introduces students to customary contract provisions, and walks students through the lifecycle of a contract, including (i) pre-formation activities such as due diligence, preliminary negotiations, and contract drafting, (ii) contract formation, performance, and amendment, and (iii) dispute activities, such as interpretation, enforcement, defenses, and remedies.
The book explores how parties “contract around” default requirements of the law, in addition to satisfying mandatory aspects of the law, through contracts, and describes the role of both the transactional lawyer and litigator in working with contracts. It presents much of the material in expository fashion rather than only or primarily through cases. This allows students to learn the doctrine more easily and allows for more time on applying the law to new situations. The book challenges students to apply contract law through transactional and litigation practice and simulation problems, which are adaptable to the classroom and asynchronous setting.
The second edition features additional materials covering the professional identities of attorneys, in addition to their professional responsibilities, revised practice problems for students to apply the contract law doctrine and private ordering principles they have learned, and expanded discussion of the role of contracts and contract law in widening and correcting power imbalances and several new cases to enhance the learning experience.
Eric Zacks is an associate professor of law at Wayne State University Law School. His scholarship focuses on modern contracting practices and the relevance of behavioral and cognitive sciences to the legal and social construction of contract formation, breach and enforcement. His recent articles have focused on the problematic evolution of contract law in the home mortgage foreclosure context. His work has been published in many law reviews and journals, including the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, Florida State University Law Review, Journal of Corporation Law, University of Cincinnati Law Review, Marquette Law Review, Penn State Law Review and William & Mary Business Law Review.
In 2012 and 2013, Zacks was voted Professor of the Year by the second- and third-year law students at Wayne Law. He teaches a variety of business law courses, including Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities Regulation, and Corporations, as well as Contracts. He also is the faculty advisor for the Jaffe/Taft Transactional Law Competition, a transaction-based skills course that he created in 2014.
He earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s, with high distinction, from the University of Michigan.
Contracts in Context: From Transaction to Litigation is also featured on the Aspen Publishing Podcast.