Negotiating Complex Transactions With Executives and Lawyers

Catalog description

In this innovative and practical course students from the Law school and the Business school come together at Stern to learn what it takes to negotiate major transactions Most key corporate deals such as mergers financing international joint ventures and settlements are legal business problems So it crucial for lawyers and business people to know how to work well together and how to design wise agreements To develop these skills students negotiate a variety of simulated transactions and conflicts They take one deal from concept to term sheet to contract and then see its effects months later They grapple with whether to sue or settle They even trade roles at least once They also examine real agreements perhaps meeting and questioning guest speakers who actually negotiated them They also discover ways to design better transactions with the help of economics and other important theoretical tools Through their continuing work together they overcome their natural feelings of professional culture shock and learn how to work as a team to create sound agreements as their future employers expect them to do. A basic course on negotiation such as Collaboration Conflict Negotiation MGMT-GB.2159 or Lawyering LAW-LW 10687 is a prerequisite for the course; there is no prerequisite for LLMs. The course is different from Stern's Advanced Topics in Negotiation which focuses mainly on negotiating in organizations. (While the course will end December 20, no final and assignments are scheduled, which gives law students time to prepare for other final exams.)