3 credits

This course is the foundational skills course within the Transactional Law Program. It teaches students basic principles and skills of drafting and analyzing commercial and transaction agreements, with a focus on recognizing, and addressing through contractual provisions, key business issues in transactions. Although the course will be of particular interest to students interested in a corporate or transactional law practice, since most practicing attorneys will need to work with contracts at some point in their career, the concepts and skills which the course conveys are applicable to virtually all practice areas and specialties. While the course utilizes lectures to introduce various contract concepts and techniques essential for drafting and reviewing commercial and transaction agreements, it also requires that students complete both in-class exercises and out-of-class assignments as a means of building basic drafting skills and a solid understanding of the structure and operation of contractual provisions in a business transaction. The course also considers various ethical issues that may arise in the contract drafting and review process and in transactional practice generally. Grades will be based on class participation and graded drafting assignments. CLASS SIZE: 12 students. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT/EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING REQUIREMENT: This course is a designated Professional Writing Course which may be used to partially satisfy the Upper-Class Writing Requirement (with a grade of B or higher) or the 6-credit Experiential Learning Requirement, but not both. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar will be administratively dropped from the course. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.

3 credits

This course covers the foundations of corporate finance. It starts with the concepts of time value of money, discounting, and present value. With that background it then considers the major financial decisions made by corporate managers. Topics include the valuation of financial assets and liabilities, criteria for making investment decisions, business valuation, relationships between risk and return, portfolio theory, market efficiency, capital structure choice, and cost of capital. PREREQUISITE: Business Fundamentals, Corporations.

3 credits

Partners, associates and general counsel from leading firms will discuss the deals they were personally involved in. After an introduction to the regulatory context of health care and health care transactional theory, the course will turn to case studies of 8 complex health care transactions, drawing on actual documents and the experience of practitioners who worked on the deals. The transactions include hospital M&A, joint ventures, clinical affiliations, and others. Students will analyze the deal and present your conclusions to the class, with the lawyers who closed it. Case law related to the legal issues presented by the transaction will be presented and discussed. Students also will complete two assignments: one considering the fiduciary obligations of a non-profit board of directors, and one writing exercise drawn from class materials. We also will review and discuss a term sheet for the acquisition of a home health agency by a hospital system. PREREQUISITE/COREQUISITE: Health Law. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

3 credits

This course is designed to give students a broad overview of the law--domestic, foreign, and international--governing international business transactions. With the significant growth in international commerce and trade, and the forces of economic and social globalization, lawyers will increasingly confront international legal issues during their professional careers. This course will focus on the legal problems encountered in business ventures that cross national borders. Topics may include formation of contracts, choice of law, financing the international sale of goods through letters of credit, sales and distribution agreements, licensing and contract manufacturing, joint venture agreements, foreign investment, international dispute settlement, and global compliance issues. This course explores one or more of these topics with contract drafting and negotiation exercises. NOTE: While prior background in international law is not required, it is strongly recommended.

3 credits

This course will cover the principal legal, tax and business issues of mergers and acquisitions. PREREQUISITE: Business Fundamentals and Corporations, or permission of instructor.

4 credits

This course offers an introduction to federal securities regulation under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We will examine how the securities laws shape the process by which companies raise capital through IPOs, public offerings, and private placements. We will also focus on the mandatory disclosure regime for publicly traded companies and the related topics of securities fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, and shareholder voting. We will study core concepts such as the definition of a security and materiality. Finally, we will spend significant time examining the role of the SEC and private shareholder litigation in policing the securities laws. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option.

3 credits

Practice Areas: General Corporate and Corporate Finance This course is one of the semester-long transaction simulations offered as part of the Transactional Law Program. The simulated transaction is the formation and subsequent first-round venture financing of a new software business started by two entrepreneurs who are recent graduates of the California Institute of Technology. During this course, students will be exposed to, and will handle, the principal issues that arise in counseling entrepreneurs as to their emerging businesses, including key elements such as founders' arrangements, entity selection, governance, equity compensation, intellectual property protection, capital raising through SAFEs (which are simple agreements for future equity), convertible notes and preferred stock financing, capitalization/valuation/dilution and investment documentation based on industry-standard contracts. Through exercises both in and outside of class, as well as class discussions, students will simulate the work of practicing attorneys who counsel start-ups and their founders on a day-to-day basis. As part of these simulations, students will review sample agreements, draft and revise agreements and conduct negotiations. In addition, from time to time during the course, the instructors will address ethical issues and other practice points that can arise in connection with the simulated transaction or in transactional practice generally when working with emerging/start-up companies. The course grade will be based on attendance and class participation and three graded writing assignments. CLASS SIZE: 12 students. PREREQUISITE OR CO-REQUISITE: Corporations. Contract Drafting is recommended but not required. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6-credit Experiential Learning requirement and also satisfies the Transaction Simulation requirement of the Transactional Practice Concentration. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar will be administratively dropped from the course. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.

3 credits

Practice Areas: Healthcare law, Intellectual Property and Strategy Transactions This course is one of the semester-long transaction simulations offered as part of the Transactional Law Program. Collaborative activity is essential to the biopharmaceutical industry due to the high costs and risks associated with drug development. In this course, students will learn how to read, draft, and negotiate collaboration agreements for new drug research, development and commercialization partnerships between biopharmaceutical companies. The course will begin with a brief introductory overview of (i) the biotechnology industry, with a focus on the importance of partnering for successful drug development and commercialization; and (ii) different forms of partnering agreements to develop a general understanding of the structure of such contracts. For the duration of the course, students will be assigned to teams to review, revise and negotiate the terms of a collaboration agreement for their clients, either a large pharmaceutical company or a smaller biotechnology company. Students will learn to think critically about whether certain provisions favor one party or the other, and ways to modify such elements through drafting changes. At the conclusion of the course, each team will be asked to present the key terms of the proposed collaboration agreement to their client's board of directors. Through regular out-of-class assignments, including substantial drafting assignments involving marking up term sheets, preparing issues lists, revising key sections of the collaboration agreement that will be negotiated and finalized by the student teams, and delivering board presentations, the course builds contract analysis, drafting, negotiation and strategic thinking skills students will need as they enter transactional law practice. The course also addresses various ethical issues that may arise in connection with these types of transactions and in transactional practice generally. The course grade will be based on individual participation, drafting assignments, and contributions to team efforts. Please note that no scientific background is necessary for this course as we will not be focusing on the scientific rationale for collaborations. CLASS SIZE: Limited to 12 students. PREREQUISITE: Contract Drafting is recommended, but not required. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6-credit Experiential Learning requirement and also satisfies the Transaction Simulation requirement of the Transactional Practice Concentration. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar will be administratively dropped from the course. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.

3 credits

Practice Areas: General Business, Banking/Finance, Corporate Governance and Restructuring This course is one of the semester-long transaction simulations offered as part of the Transactional Law Program. The simulated transaction is the structuring, negotiation and documentation, and subsequent restructuring of a $1.7 billion secured, syndicated commercial loan to a large, privately held medical testing company (the "Company"). The Company's primary purpose for seeking this loan is to use the proceeds to pay an extraordinary dividend to its founder and controlling shareholder and to several private equity firms which own stock in the Company (often referred to as a "dividend recap loan"). The course will explore some of the key issues, and students will perform several of the principal tasks, which transactional lawyers specializing in general business, banking/finance, corporate governance and/or restructuring must consider and carry out in advising corporate clients and financial institutions in a transaction of this kind. These tasks will include advising the Company's board of directors and officers or prospective lenders in evaluating whether to engage in the dividend recap loan transaction, the steps needed to obtain corporate approval of such transaction given that certain board members who are also shareholders will benefit from it, and structuring, negotiating and documenting these types of transactions. The course will also examine the critical role certain provisions of the credit and security agreements for the loan play following the loan closing when serious problems and potential events of default arise leading to a restructuring of the original loan. Finally, the course will consider various ways a troubled loan can be restructured either through an out-of-court consensual transaction or a Chapter 11 restructuring. The course grade will be based on class participation and graded drafting assignments. CLASS SIZE: Limited to 12 students. PREREQUISITE OR CO-REQUISITE: Corporations. Contract Drafting is recommended, but not required. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement and also satisfies the Transaction Simulation requirement of the Transactional Practice Concentration. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar will be administratively dropped from the course. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.