Wayne Law Hosts 11th Annual Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Competition
DETROIT — Fifty Wayne State University Law School students participated in the 11th Annual Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Competition on Nov. 15, 2024, at the Southfield offices of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.
This year’s winners are as follows:
- First Place Negotiations (Seller’s Counsel): Mackenzie Berenbrock, Katherine Koczak, and Elizabeth Miller
- First Place Negotiations (Buyer’s Counsel): Natalia Perkowska and Wella Yatooma
- First Place Drafting (Seller’s Counsel): Nadine Hojaij and Farah Joni
- First Place Drafting (Buyer’s Counsel): Dino Bucci and Scout Ciora
The winners will represent Wayne Law at the 2025 Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Invitational, a national competition hosted by Wayne Law in the spring. This premier event will bring together 22 law schools from across the United States.
This innovative, live-round competition is part of a one-credit course developed and led by Associate Professor and Faculty Director of the LL.M. Program Eric Zacks. The competition challenges students to build essential drafting, negotiating, and counseling skills through a simulated mergers and acquisitions transaction. Participating teams represented either the buyer or seller in a complex acquisition scenario. Over the semester, each team advised its client, drafted questions, prepared a letter of intent, completed a markup of opposing counsel’s draft, and engaged in two rounds of live negotiations during competition day.
A panel of practicing transactional attorneys, including many Wayne Law alumni, served as judges, providing feedback to participants after each round.
The Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Competition, previously known as the Jaffe Transactional Law Competition, was established in 2014 by Professor Zacks and Wayne Law alumnus and partner at Taft Justin Hanna. The program continues to thrive thanks to the Taft Transactional Law Competition Fund, established in 2018.
This year’s competition was organized by student chairpersons and past winners Lydia Dunn, Erli Metko, Christian Sarafa, and Lena Vushaj.
“Taft is proud to support the competition and the resulting growth and development of business-minded law graduates from Wayne Law," Hanna said. “The exceptional judging support from experienced M&A lawyers reflects our practice’s appreciation for the practical training the competition provides. Thanks to the efforts of Professor Zacks and the student chairpersons, the competition continues to advance Wayne Law students as competitive and skilled business law graduates.”
The attorneys serving as judges included the following, with Wayne Law alumni indicated by an asterisk (*):
- Justin Hanna* ’15 | Taft
- Peter Sugar* ’70 | Taft
- Marguerite Donahue* ’87 | Taft
- Sara Kruse* ’96 | Taft
- Lee Kellert* ’00 | Taft
- Jeff Izzard | Taft
- Ryan Mardini | Taft
- Josh Unice | Taft
- Bruce Kahn | Taft
- Summer Moukalled | Taft
- Gus Andreasen | Taft
- Evonne Xu | Taft
- Steve Migliore* ’08 | Honigman
- Arthur Griem* ’19 | Miller Canfield
- Kelsey Postema* ’21 | Wolfson Bolton
- Amy Smith* ’17 | Wolfson Bolton
- Scott Carter* ’21 | Barnes & Thornburg
- Stephen Reaume* ’17 | Miller Johnson
- DeLone Dawisha* ’18 | Dawisha Law
- Danielle Graceffa* ’06 | Invest Detroit
- Jeff Paulsen | Paulsen Law Firm
- Chris Attar* ’14 | General Motors
“This fall’s competition went extremely well," Professor Zacks said. “I am thrilled that we were able, with Taft’s support, to provide 50 Wayne Law students with the opportunity to experience transactional law in a real-world setting, including feedback from practicing M&A attorneys. We are very proud of this competition, the student chairs, and all of the student competitors, and grateful to Taft for its continued support of this program.”
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Contact: Jessica Taylor
Phone: 313-577-4834
Email: gp5272@wayne.edu