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Avery Barber (JD ’19), Robert Botkin (JD ’18) and Jay Sipe (JD ’19) are the overall team champions in the 2017 Wake Forest Transactional Law Competition, a student-designed event that was sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson.

The Transactional Law Competition consists of three rounds: drafting, mark-up and negotiation. Student teams represent buyers and sellers of a hypothetical company. In the drafting round, teams are asked to draft an agreement that represents their client’s position in the business, while being cognizant of the other side’s position in order to keep the deal alive. In the mark-up round, teams receive a copy of the agreement from a team on the opposite side of the deal. Teams are asked to mark-up the agreement with changes according to the needs of their client. In the negotiation round, teams participate in negotiations with two separate teams: the team who completed a mark-up of their agreement and the team whose draft they marked-up.

The negotiation, or final round, was held in the Law Commons of the Worrell Professional Center on Saturday, Oct. 21.  The negotiation round was followed by a reception for judges and participants. At the reception, Dean Suzanne Reynolds (JD ’77) and Professor Alan Palmiter presented the awards to the winners of the competition. This year’s competition included 14 teams of second- and third-year law students. Seventeen area practitioners and four Wake Forest faculty members judged the competition.

This year’s problem was designed by members of the Transactional Law Competition Board. The 2017 Transactional Law Competition Board consisted of:

Chairperson: Samer Roshdy (JD ’18)

Vice Chairperson: Drew Hayhurst (JD ’18)

Problem Chairperson: Matt Freeze (JD ’19)

2L Board Member: Jojo Fina (JD ’19)

2L Board Member: Juliana Inman (JD ’19)

2L Board Member: Patrick Wilson (JD ’19)

Co-Founder: Ben Westcott (JD ’18)

Co-Founder: Darryl Walton (JD ’18)

Professor Harold Lloyd, who was joined by Professor Jayashree Gokhale (BA ’67) in advising the competition, stated ”this competition showcases transactional education at Wake in multiple ways.  First, the students who design the annual problems demonstrate impressive transactional knowledge and creativity in creating complex commercial and business scenarios for negotiation and drafting.  Second, the students who participate in the competition demonstrate high levels of both theoretical and practical skills as they grapple with and negotiate those complex commercial and business scenarios.  It’s a joy to see judges from the practicing bar experience this fact about Wake students.  Third, the advanced legal writing, clinical, business, commercial, tax, intellectual property, negotiation, and countless other courses at Wake that prepare students for the competition demonstrate Wake Forest School of Law’s commitment to providing excellent transactional instruction for students interested in a transactional practice.”

Overall Team Champions

Avery Barber (JD ’19)

Robert Botkin (JD ’18)

Jay Sipe (JD ’19)

Best Team Negotiators

Avery Barber

Robert Botkin

Jay Sipe

Best Team Mark-up

Cara Katrinak (JD ’19)

William Kroske (JD ’19)

Lenae Davis (JD ’19)

Best Team Draft

Grant Hancock (JD ’19)

Pat Soundy (JD ’19)

Connor Mitchell (JD ’19)