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Sunday Schedule
Program
Annual
Meeting
Home
For more information, e-mail Professor Peter Linzer
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Sunday, January 5, 2003
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8:30-10:15 a.m.
Section on Contracts
Peter Linzer, University of Houston, Chair |
Virginia Suite A
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Lobby Level |
Teaching Contracts Transactionally
(Program to be published in the Toledo Law Review.)
Moderator:
Peter Linzer, University of Houston
Speakers: - Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, University of Toledo
- Christina L. Kunz, William Mitchell College of Law
- David V. Snyder, Indiana University-Bloomington
- Kellye Y. Testy, Seattle University
- Edith Warkentine, Whittier Law School
Most contracts courses concern themselves almost exclusively with appellate decisions deciding contract disputes, or in other words, about busted deals. Thus, law students learn a lot about the pathology of contract law: improper or incomplete formation, unfair bargains, badly drafted language that needs interpretation, contract breaches, and defenses and remedies for contract disputes. These topics, important though they are, are what contract litigators deal with, but not what concerns contract lawyers, except as pitfalls to be avoided.
Contract lawyers work with their clients to learn their clients' businesses and business needs. They negotiate deals, draft legal documents, and often take part in working out disputes in the administration of the contracts so as to avoid litigation. In fact, most transactional lawyers seek to brag that no contract they wrote ever ended up in court.
This program will bring together five teachers who have used substantial forms of transactional materials in their classes. The panelists will discuss the use of transactional approaches both to the basic Contracts course and in advanced or specialized courses.
Professor Snyder, who has his class draft contracts and has guest speakers talk about how to find forms, what to do in drafting, and similar matters, will give examples from his actual materials. Professor Testy has a friend play a client seeking legal advice, usually as a member of an out group, either racial/ethnic or based on sexual orientation. This year her problem involved raising money for a sex change ("reclassification") operation. She then has her students do drafting and client interviewing. Professor Warkentine uses legal documents in her contracts class as part of doctrinal learning and also teaches a contracts drafting course, which she describes as a bridge course. She wrote on this topic in "Kingsfield Doesn't Teach My Contracts Class: Teaching Contracts With Contracts," 50 J. Legal Educ. 112 (2002). Professor Gibbons, who teaches Intellectual Property, will describe having Intellectual Property students draft clauses for licenses to use copyrighted materials. Professor Kunz is well known for her work in contracts and commercial law. She has her first year class go over many contracts and clauses throughout the term, reading them closely and working on rewriting them to improve them. She will also briefly discuss what she and Carol Chomsky are doing to add transactional materials to their new commercial law casebook.
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion
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