Thanks to the generous support provided by the Nancy and Dave Petrone Business and Law Success Initiative Fund, the Career Center sponsored 20 students (10 teams) to participate in the LawMeets® 2020 M&A Boot Camp over the summer. The sponsorship covered the cost of participating in the Boot Camp plus a $2,000 stipend per student.
The Boot Camp was a 10-week online program to teach deal skills to law students. Students worked in teams to draft, mark-up, and negotiate an acquisition agreement. In the simulated leveraged buyout transaction, students interacted with clients, senior lawyers, and opposing teams via video conference, email, and telephone.
The summer experience also exposed participants to M&A concepts, forms of agreement, and most importantly, senior practitioners, and their “know how.”
Tyler Eddington, a third-year student, says that the Boot Camp reinforced his interest in and ability to practice M&A and corporate law generally.
“It was fun to learn about the various legal mechanisms that could be included in an acquisition agreement and how different levers can be used to the benefit of the client,” Eddington said.
He also notes that staying organized, studying new areas of law, and working effectively with team members and opposing parties all contributed to his professional development.
Law students Tyler Eddington and Charlie Morris during their last negotiation session. Eddington and Morris swept all the points in that session for best drafting and negotiating.
“The experience was absolutely worthwhile,” Eddington said.
In addition to practical skills, the program provided a boost of confidence for participants like Andrea Moore. The third-year law student says that not only did she enjoy learning to draft M&A documents, but it increased her self-confidence.
“I learned that I am assertive in negotiations,” Moore said. “I always thought of myself more as a backseat listener. However, during the competition, I realized that I am good at transactional law and negotiations. To really shine, I just need to be more confident, which the competition helped me understand.”
Oregon Law Pro Tem Professor LizabethAnn R. Eisen coached Moore and teammate Sierra Tillery.
“The LawMeets competition offered students an opportunity to work one-on-one with a coach to hone practical transactional skills such as drafting, preparing issues lists and negotiating key terms,” Coach Eisen said. “It was a pleasure working with Andrea and Sierra — the learning curve was steep, and I am proud of them. Through their hard work, by the end, they were lawyering well beyond their years earning a perfect score on the final drafting assignment.”
By School of Law Communications