Eric A. Zacks
Eric A. Zacks
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Biography
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. He also co-authored a contract law casebook, Contracts in Context: From Transaction to Litigation, which was published by Aspen Publishers in 2019.
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 a first-year Contracts course. He also is the faculty advisor for the Jaffe Transactional Law Competition, a transaction-based skills course that he created in 2014.
Prior to joining Wayne Law, Zacks was a partner in the corporate and securities department of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, a Detroit law firm, with a practice focus on complex acquisitions and divestitures, debt and equity financings, and other aspects of corporate transactions. He earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s, with high distinction, from the University of Michigan.
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Degrees and Certifications
J.D., Harvard Law School
B.A., University of Michigan -
Courses Taught
Contracts
Corporate Finance
Corporations
Mergers and Acquisitions
Securities Regulation
Transactional Law Competition -
Selected publications
Contract Consentability: Autonomy Threats, Benefits, and Framing, 66 Loy. L. Rev. 103 (2020) (symposium piece)
Yesterday I Was Lying: Creeping Preclusion of Reciprocal Fee Awards in Residential Foreclosure Litigation, 93 St. John's L. Rev. (2020) (with Dustin Zacks)
No Brakes: Loan Acceleration and Diminishing Foreclosure Defenses, 18 Wake Forest J. Bus. & Intell. Prop. L. 389 (2018) (with Dustin A. Zacks)
The Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 211: Unfulfilled Expectations and the Future of Modern Standardized Consumer Contracts, 7 William & Mary Business Law Review 733 (2016)
A Standing Question: Mortgages, Assignment, and Foreclosure, 40 J. Corp. L. 706 (2015) (with Dustin A. Zacks)
The Moral Hazard of Contract Drafting, 42 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 991 (2015)
Contract Review: Cognitive Bias, Moral Hazard, and Situational Pressure, 9 Ohio St. Entrepreneurial Bus. L.J.379 (2015)
Not a Party: Challenging Mortgage Assignments, 59 St. Louis U. L.J.175 (2014) (with Dustin A. Zacks)
Shame, Regret, and Contract Design, 97 Marq. L. Rev. 695 (2014)
Contracting Blame, 15 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 169 (2012)
Unstacking the Deck? Contract Manipulation and Credit Card Accountability, 78 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1471 (2010)
Dismissing the Class: A Practical Approach to the Class Action Restriction on the Legal Services Corporation, 110 Penn State L. Rev. 1 (2005) (with Joshua D. Blank) reprinted in Class Action Litigation and Limitations (Icfai University Press, 2008)
- Social Science Research Network
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Books
Contracts in Context: from Transaction to Litigation (2019) with Nadelle GrossmanThis new casebook focuses on the transactional nature of contracts. In addition to describing the law of contracts and how the law is applied in litigation, the casebook explores why parties enter into contracts, how written contracts are customarily structured, and why and how parties use contract design and terms to achieve their goals.
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Accomplishments
- Eric Zacks spoke at the State Bar of Michigan’s Business Law Section third annual Symposium on “Corporate Oppression Actions and Business Law Oppression in the Age of Pandemic.”
- Eric Zacks was featured on the Wolters Kluwer Author Spotlight regarding his new casebook, “Contracts in Context: From Transaction to Litigation.”
- Eric Zacks co-wrote the casebook “Contracts in Context: From Transaction to Litigation” with Nadelle Grossman of Marquette University Law School, which was recently published by Aspen. In addition to describing the law of contracts and how the law is applied in litigation, the new casebook explores why parties enter into contracts, how written contracts are customarily structured, and why and how parties use contract design and terms to achieve their goals.
- Eric Zacks co-wrote “No Brakes: Loan Acceleration and Diminishing Foreclosure Defenses” with Dustin A. Zacks for the Wake Forest Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law. The article examines the evolving treatment of statute of limitation and res judicata defenses after a loan has been accelerated following a borrower default and the implication for future lending and collection practices. Read the article here.
- Eric Zacks presented his latest article "Fee-Shifting Provisions in Foreclosure" June 7 at the 2018 Annual Meeting on Law and Society in Toronto.
- Eric Zackspresented his latest article "Fee-Shifting Provisions in Foreclosure," Feb. 23 at the 13th Annual International Conference on Contracts at Barry University School of Law.
- Eric Zackspresented a draft of his article, "Fee-Shifting Provisions in Foreclosure," at the 2017 Midwestern Law & Economic Annual Meeting and Conference at Marquette University Law School.
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Recent courses taught
Winter Term 2025 (future)
Fall Term 2024 (current)
Winter Term 2024
Fall Term 2023
Winter Term 2023
Fall Term 2022
Winter Term 2022
Recent university news spotlights
- Wayne Law Team wins William and Mary Colonial Cup Competition
- Twenty-two law schools from across the nation compete in Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Invitational
- Wayne Law Students Select 2022-2023 Professors of the Year
- Second Edition of Wayne Law Professor Eric A. Zacks' Contracts Casebook Published